Come Together
by Mjax101387
Summary: "When a new member joins the Avengers Initiative to help locate the Tesseract, another skeleton from the Stark past pops out of the closet. Dr. Stella Patillo has always had a history with Tony Stark, but will this history come in the way of the future she could posses with Steve Rogers." Bit of an AU- Movie!Verse
1. Introductions

"_What the hell am I doing?" _She thought as she sat on the tiny jet clutching her bag to her chest. It all happened so quickly, one minute Stella Patillo was working on her experiment with electromagnetic fields in Europe and the next Agent Phil Coulson of the "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division" was insisting she help on a top-secret project.

It had been four years since the first time she had heard from SHIELD and met Agent Coulson. She had been dealing with the aftermath of a failed project when he arrived and even though he had made no indication of knowing about her accident, she wasn't an idiot and knew it was no coincidence he had showed up when he had showed up. He hadn't told her much other than whom he represented and that she might hear from them again in the future before leaving her once more.

Meeting odd government officials was part of the territory when you worked in the fields she did so she had honestly forgotten about SHIELD till Agent Coulson showed up this morning with an urgent request telling her that her services were now needed and forcefully asked to come help.

Not a lot of information had been given to her; also something not unusual when dealing with the government, but nonetheless unsettling, especially when he said the world depended on it.

"We're approximately 20 miles away." The pilot said out loud as Agent Coulson looked over at Stella and noticed her worried expression. "Dr. Patillo SHIELD thanks you for your services." He stated turning to stand from the Navigator's computer on the jet. "I'm not exactly sure what those services are but anything to save the world." She mumbled somewhat sarcastically as Coulson smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Ya know; I can definitely see the resemblance. I mean, your eyes are different, but, you look just like him," He rambled, shaking his head as she raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Who?" She asked only to be interrupted by the pilot. "We're here." The pilot said before Coulson turned to Dr. Patillo. "I apologize for not being able to give you more information, Director Fury asked to be the one to brief you on what's going on once we get on the bridge." Phil clarified as she nodded. "Well that would be nice." She answered, standing from her seat once the plane had landed.

As they stepped outside she realized they were in the middle of the ocean on what looked liked a giant Navy Carrier where people were scrambling to tie down jets and clear the deck off. As she grabbed her small bag a shorter but tough looking red headed woman approached them looking very serious.

"Captain Rogers will be here shortly." She spoke to Agent Coulson as he nodded, with a sad look on his face. "I still wish they would've let me get him." He responded somewhat disappointedly as the red haired woman gave him a smile. "You'll still get to see him. Anyways, they need you on the bridge, they are beginning the face trace." She stated as he nodded to indicate he'd heard her. "Thank you. See you there." He mumbled before turning to face Stella. "Dr. Patillo, this is Agent Romanoff she'll escort you inside." He said before walking away from then as the red headed woman turned to Stella with a polite nod.

"Dr. Patillo, nice to meet you. Welcome aboard." She stated as Stella nodded a polite hello before the two women began to walk. "So you're Dr. Stella Patillo, Director Fury's talked about you, said you'd probably be able to help us." Agent Romanoff began as Stella followed her around the deck. "I'd probably be more helpful if I knew what I was trying to help you guys with." Stella replied as Agent Romanoff smirked at her comment.

"Yea, you'll get used to that. Anyway, he suggested we bring you in to work with Dr. Banner, thought two brains were better than one." She said as Stella stopped, eyes wide. "Dr. Banner? Dr. Bruce Banner? He's gonna be here?" She asked as the agent raised an eyebrow at her. "Take it you've heard of him?" Agent Romanoff asked as Stella nodded excitedly.

"That man is one of my heroes, I mean his work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled." She responded, as the agent nodded politely, not sure what the hell the Doc had just said. "And, are you aware of his…other work?" She asked as Stella nodded once more, just slightly sadder. "I'm aware, doesn't take away from the fact that the man is a genius." She claimed as they noticed another jet land and Agent Romanoff walked them towards another Agent.

"Right, well why don't you go inside. Agent Marks will take you to the director." Agent Romanoff said as Stella nodded her appreciation. "Thank you." Stella added before following Agent Marks towards the bridge, trying to take in everything going on.

Greeting the blonde man that stepped out of the jet Agent Romanoff smiled as Steve Rogers gave polite nod back. "Captain Rogers. It's an honor. My name is Natasha Romanoff. Welcome aboard." She said greeting him as he shook her hand. "Ma'am." He responded as they began to walk away from the jet so they could tie it down. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. Thought Agent Coulson was gonna swoon. Don't be surprised if he asks you to sign his Captain America trading cards?"

"Trading cards?" Steve asked as she smiled. "They're vintage. He's very proud." Natasha teased as they turned to see Dr. Banner bumping into people while he observed the carrier. "Doctor Banner." Steve said reaching his hand out to shake Dr. Banner's who looked anxious and lightly overwhelmed. "Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you'd be coming." Dr. Banner spoke as he studied the super soldier he had heard stories about.

"Word is you can find the Cube." "Is that the, uh, only word on me?" Dr. Banner asked cautiously. "Only word I care about." Steve responded honestly as Bruce gave him a polite smile. "Must be strange for you, all of this." He asked Steve who shrugged taking in the sights around him. "Well, this is actually kind of familiar." He said nodding to the military training that was taking place around them. Finally somewhere he felt a little bit comfortable. "Gentlemen, you might wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe." Natasha informed as the two men leaned over the edge and watched as the craft begin to lift giant propellers out of the water.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked as Bruce shook his head incredulously. "Really, they want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" The Propellers then began to spin and the carrier began to lift into the air. "Oh much better." He mumbled when he realized what was happening.

"Follow me." Natasha ordered as they turned to walk behind her. "They also mentioned that Dr. Stella Patillo would be here." Bruce asked as Natasha simply nodded. "She is, she's already inside." Natasha said as Steve turned to look at Bruce. In his briefing he had heard anything about a Dr. Patillo being involved. He really didn't like it when things were kept from him.

Walking inside Stella looked around the giant room shocked at the sights in front of her. It was like some sort of futuristic spacecraft. Everything was electronic and big, it reminded her of the bridge from the new Star Trek movie, but black instead of white, and ten times bigger. Who knew the military had this kind of budget.

"Dr. Patillo, it's an honor to have you on board." An African-American man spoke turning to face her from his computers. He was built like a jackhammer, tall and strong and dressed in dark clothes with an eye patch covering his left eye. "Thank you." She responded as she shook his extended hand feeling very much intimated by the man in front of her.

"My name is Director Fury, I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now, and I promise you'll be brought up to speed, but since we're short on time I'm gonna keep this brief. The things you're gonna see and hear are gonna be more than the mind can handle, even a brilliant one like yourself, but I can assure you this is very much real. The world is under attack from an alien force…" "I'm sorry alien?" She interrupted suddenly feeling like she was being set up.

"Maybe I shouldn't use the word alien, more like…not of this world. His name is Loki, he is a demi-God from Asguard…" "Wait…Loki…like Loki, the God of Mischief from Norse _Mythology_?" "Oh good, so you know your mythology. That'll make things easier. Loki is here on earth and we're guessing his brother Thor isn't too far behind." "Thor, God of Thunder Thor? Right, right. Of course he wouldn't be far behind. Cause of Loki is here why wouldn't Thor come?" She mumbled shaking her head in disbelief.

"I know it's hard to understand…" "No, No…I understand completely…this is uh, this is a joke. I'm being set up right? I mean, Asguard, Demi-God's…this is…" She rambled trying to comprehend everything as Director Fury raised his eyebrow at her. "Is it really so unbelievable…given your experiences?" He asked as Stella felt the blood drain from her cheeks as she closed her hands tightly.

"My experiences have nothing to do with Gods and aliens. If that is the case…why am I here?" She asked defensively crossing her arms in front of her chest as Fury continued on.

"Loki has taken something that belongs to S.H.I.E.L.D it's called the Tesseract." "Tesseract. It's real?" She asked as he nodded. "You've heard of it?" "My dad used to talk about it when I was a kid. I thought it was just drunken ramblings." "Well it is very much real. And it's fallen into the wrong hands. I don't know what his plans are, but I can assure you they aren't good. You've been brought in because we need your help locating it. You'll be working with Dr. Banner in helping us find it." He said as she felt excitement swell at the thought of working with Dr. Banner.

He was one of her heroes and probably the most brilliant minds she'd ever studied. It was heartbreaking when he had disappeared after his incident in New York, but now she was finally going to work with him.

As if on cue Agent Romanoff walked in with two men. The shorter one she recognized instantly as Dr. Banner but she had no idea who the taller blonde one was, however she had to admit he was a beautiful looking man. He was tall, with blonde hair done in a short but simple style; his blue eyes seemed to sparkle under all the lights and his strong cheekbones helped emphasize his well-defined jaw. He looked like he'd been carved out of marble, strong, fit and even under his clothes Stella could tell he was rather muscular.

His eyes were wide as he studied the ship's interior before turning to look over at Stella. She offered a polite smile, which he returned, letting his eyes linger on hers.

"Dr. Banner, thank you for coming." Fury said moving to greet them. "Thanks for asking nicely. So um, how long am I staying?" Bruce asked as Stella broke the gaze to turn and look at Dr. Banner feeling a little star struck in his presence. "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury answered as Bruce nodded.

"Well where are you with that?" Dr. Banner asked looking over at Stella and giving a polite smile. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Agent Coulson answered as Stella shook her head, breaking out of her star struck gaze of Dr. Banner to do what she was supposed to do and help.

"You have to narrow your field. How many Spectrometers do you have access to?" Stella interrupted as everyone turned to look at her quizzically.

"My apologizes. Dr. Banner, Captain Rogers, this is Dr. Stella Patillo; she'll be helping you in your laboratory. Dr. Patillo, Dr. Bruce Banner and Captain Steve Rogers."

"Dr. Patillo, it's so nice to finally meet you." Bruce said walking over to her and extending his hand as she did the same. "Dr. Banner, the feeling is mutual. I feel a little star struck." She mumbled as Bruce blushed lightly at her compliment.

"Well the pleasure is all mine. The work you've done with Vita Rays and linking them to the electromagnetism of lightening and strong nuclear forces is just astonishing. That's why I was so excited to hear you would be helping with this." "Well thank you Dr. Banner, that's quite a compliment coming from you." She said with a big smile before turning to the blonde gentleman.

Steve had noticed Stella the minute he'd stepped onto the bridge, it was hard to miss someone as pretty as her, plus there was added feeling of familiarity about her that he didn't quite understand.

She was a little taller than most girls, with long legs that were only emphasized by the heels she was wearing. Her figure reminded Steve of the pin-ups from his time, with delicious soft curves and a voluptuous chest. She had dark brown hair that she wore pulled back in a simple ponytail and when she turned to look at him, he couldn't help but stare into her unique jade green eyes.

Her delicate pink lips were pulled into a small purse as she studied Steve and suddenly her eyebrows shot up in recognition.

"Captain Rogers…oh my god, I can't believe I didn't recognize the name." She replied, and it looked like a light bulb went off in her head. "Captain Steve Rogers?" She asked as he nodded.

"As in Captain America, Captain Rogers?" She continued to ask walking towards him as he nodded once more, chuckling a little bit out of embarrassment, not really used to when people actually recognized him, especially someone as like her.

Pretty scientist girls hadn't exactly been his fan base back in his day.

"I can't believe I didn't recognize you. My father was quite the fan, he talked about you all the time, I can't believe…wow." She whispered in disbelief reaching forward to shake his hand.

Her skin was soft when he took her hand in his and he couldn't believe the bolt of electricity that shot through him from the contact. "It's a pleasure ma'am." He answered honestly with a smile, liking the small blush that crept on her cheek.

They held each other's gazes for a moment and there was something about her, he had just met the girl but she seemed so familiar to him.

"Right well now that introductions are out of the way, back to work. How many are there of those spectra-things?" Fury asked as Stella shook off her haze and Steve let go of her hand, reluctantly.

"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the Spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for Gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for us to work?" Bruce asked getting them back into motion as Fury nodded.

"Agent Romanoff, show Dr. Banner and Dr. Patillo to their laboratory." He said as she nodded and the two followed behind her. "You're gonna love it here Docs. We get all the great toys." She told them as Stella followed behind Bruce glancing back over her shoulder once more at Steve with a sweet smile that Steve couldn't help but return.

Stella and Bruce walked into the laboratory and with a polite nod Natasha let them get to work.

"Well I think first thing is first Dr. Banner, since this is definitely your area of expertise I'll follow your lead." Stella said taking her coat off and placing it on a table as he nodded.

"Please call me Bruce, and I wouldn't say it's my expertise…but, I uh, do have some first hand experience with Gamma rays." He joked as she chuckled and began to start up some of the computers.

"I've heard." She added as he also put his coat down turning to look at her.

"Does it make you nervous Dr. Patillo?" He asked curiously as she stopped, turning to look at him.

"Stella's fine, and to be honest…a little. But I don't think you would've come if you couldn't control…it." She said not sure how to describe the green monster she'd seen in news footage as Bruce chuckled.

"I wouldn't say control…" He mumbled looking over at her as she nodded.

"Well, I'm sure it will be fine. Besides, I'm not completely helpless." She muttered as he raised an eyebrow curious to her cryptic statement.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" She asked before he could ask any questions about what she meant. Getting the hint he nodded and they both moved to different computers to begin entering the formulas and information needed to track the energy levels of the Tesseract.


	2. Old Acquaintances

Bruce and Stella spent the next few hours working while Bruce filled Stella in on the situation with as much as he knew, when they suddenly heard the sound of boots heading down the hallway.

Turning to see a man being escorted by several agents in handcuffs, Stella noted that he was gauntly with long dark hair and a dangerous looking smirk.

Eyeing Bruce he gave a smile that reminded Stella of a predator stalking his prey, then he turned his gaze onto Stella and raised an eyebrow at her.

Closing her eyes she felt like something was poking at her brain before she shook it off.

"Loki I take it?" She asked as Bruce nodded. "My guess too." He said before the two of them were summoned back to the bridge.

An agent named Maria Hill, who seemed to be the next in charge of SHIELD led Stella and Bruce to a conference table on the pilot's deck.

Walking into the room they saw Natasha and Steve seated at a table with monitors in the table while a giant of man with blonde hair and large muscles watched on.

Steve was partially dressed in what looked like his uniform and Stella couldn't help but admire the way it clung tightly to his muscles.

"_Now is not the time for your libido to go bezerk Stella." _She thought to herself before turning her attention to the monitors in the table.

They could see Director Fury talking to the person Stella assumed was Loki, who had been escorted into what looked like a large cylinder glass cage.

"Just to make this clear to you…you try to escape- you so much as scratch that glass-" Fury began, pushing a button as the floor beneath the cell dropped away to nothing and the wind rushed through the room.

"Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" He stated, pushing the button to close the doors before gesturing first to Loki.

"Ant." He stated then gestured to the control panel.

"Boot."

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." The prisoner asked, looking around the glass containment center.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury replied as the prisoner nodded and turned towards a camera.

"Oh I've heard." The prisoner started as Natasha turned to look up at Bruce.

"A mindless beast- makes plays he's still a man..." The prisoner continued as Stella turned to look at Bruce feeling sorry to hear such a harsh statement.

"...How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked rhetorically as he walked towards the cage.

"You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Fury spoke in a calm but very firm tone, and it only seemed to please the man that he was getting a rise out of the director.

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share?" He asked as Stella frowned wondering what he was talking about.

"And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki spoke trying to get a rise out of Fury, who in turn just grinned and shook his head as he turned to leave.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." He mumbled before the monitors at the table turned off and everyone turned to look at each other, not sure what to say.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce asked to help break the tension as Stella chuckled at his attempt.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked as Stella's eyes widened at the tall blonde man she had seen when she walked into the room.

So that was Thor.

The god of Thunder was real as well.

Fury hadn't been lying when he said things would seem unbelievable.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asguard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor spoke before turning to look quizzically at Stella.

"An army, from outer space?" Steve asked in disbelief as Stella shook her head once more.

"_This just gets better and better."_

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce stated as Thor's eyes widened.

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained as Thor shook his head.

"He's a friend." He stated sadly, obviously worried about his friend.

"Loki has them under some kind of spell- along with one of ours." Natasha added with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve asked as Bruce chuckled.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can small crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asguard, and he is my brother." Thor corrected as Stella smiled at the way Thor took up for his brother despite all Loki had done already, it's just what family did for each other.

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha pointed out as Thor froze.

"He's adopted." He stated quietly as Stella bit her lip to keep from giggling at his comment, knowing he probably hadn't intended for it to be comical.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked as Stella realized the elements involved.

"It's a stabilizing agent." She stated at the same time as someone else walking in.

The man was having a conversation with Agent Coulson, but Stella felt her heart drop when she saw the man in front of her.

Even if he had only been 18 when she left, she'd recognize that smug little shit no matter how many years passed.

"Anthony Edward Stark. Why am I not surprised you're here?" Stella snapped as Tony froze, he'd know that voice anywhere.

"Stella…no one told me you'd be involved." He stated beyond shocked to see the one girl he could never forget.

It'd been 15 years since he'd seen her last, even if Pepper did keep _him_ in touch with _her_.

He'd threatened to fire Pepper on more than one occasion for sending a birthday card every year, but Pepper believed it to be the right thing to do. Damn her and her conscious.

"Hmm…it's been too long. Really." He added reigning in his emotions and placing the cool façade he'd come to perfect over the years.

"Not long enough." She added as everyone turned to look at the two of them with wide eyes.

"You two know each other?" Steve asked, sensing the tension between them, and oddly…feeling a little bit jealous.

"_Like father like son."_ Was all he could think as he remembered that feeling he got when Peggy and Howard talked about fondue-ing.

"Unfortunately yes." She stated shaking her head with disdain.

Well whatever history they had, it didn't seem like a pleasant one.

"We'll deal with the personal shit later. Right now, back to business." Agent Hill interrupted as Tony nodded walking towards the computers.

"Right so. As Stella said it's a stabling agent. Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." He said walking past Thor.

"No hard feelings point break, you get a mean swing." Tony said patting Thor on the arm before stepping to the control panels.

"Ah, raise the mizzen mast, jib the topsails." He commanded as Agent Hill rolled her eyes and the others looked at him strangely.

"That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He pointed out before covering one eye and turning left and right to look at the different computers in the Captain's quarters.

"How does Fury even see these?" He asked as Agent Hill replied with a snarky, "He turns."

"Sounds exhausting!" Tony uttered, before turning to mess with the screens and stick a chip with JARVIS to the underside of the desk.

"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube." Tony added as Maria rolled her eyes once more at his arrogant behavior.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?" He asked as Steve butt in.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He'd have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Stella stated, putting her personal feelings of Tony aside to focus on the task at hand.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect." Tony added as Bruce nodded.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce interjected as Tony smiled, glad someone spoke his language.

"Finally. Someone who speaks English." Tony said moving past Stella towards Bruce.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked as Tony and Bruce shook hands.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony added as Bruce smiled uncomfortably, and Natasha couldn't help the feeling of déjà vu at Tony's statement to Bruce.

Those had been the exact words that Stella had said minus the mention of the Hulk.

"...Thanks" Bruce mumbled as Fury entered.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. And Dr. Patillo is here to help as well."

"Patillo…going by your mother's maiden name?" Tony asked turning to look at Stella who nodded. "I didn't want to be branded a Stark my whole life." She said as Steve figured out what the history between the two of them was.

Apparently, she was his ex wife if she was now going by her maiden name and not wanting to be Stark her whole life.

"It's suited me fine." Tony added.

"Yea well being a Stark was never an issue for you." She snapped back with an angry glare as Fury interjected.

"Glad to see you two getting re-acquainted. Perhaps Mr_. _Stark can help you out in the lab." He added as Stella bit her tongue to maintain some form of professionalism.

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve added, finding himself slightly disappointed now that he knew their history.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand-" Thor began only to be excitedly cut off by Steve.

"I do!" He exclaimed as everyone stared at him. "I...I understood that reference." He mumbled as Tony rolled his eyes and Stella couldn't help but smile a little at the adorable expression on Steve's face.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked ignoring Stella. "This way, sir." Bruce started as the two of them walked off to the lab and Stella turned to look at Fury.

"Why didn't you tell me Tony Stark was involved?" She asked walking over to him as he turned to face her.

"I didn't think it'd be a problem."

"Director Fury, you've obviously done your homework and know who I am, don't you think it would've been fair to at least warn me that that man was involved?" She asked not about to let Fury play "dumb" with her.

"Up until about an hour ago, we didn't know he was involved."

"Knowing him, up until an hour ago he probably didn't know he was gonna be involved." She mumbled with a sigh and squeezing the bridge of her nose when she felt that probing again.

"Is this gonna be a problem?" Fury asked as Stella shook her head turning to look up at him.

"No. You've just given me my motivation to work harder so I can leave quicker." She stated before turning to walk down the hallway to the lab.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman pissed off." Fury joked watching her walk down the hallway as Steve chuckled before standing up to follow her to the lab.

He couldn't help but think of how Stella reminded him of Peggy right then. Didn't look like she took anything from guys and was obviously not easily intimidated.


	3. History Unraveled

"Dr. Patillo?" Steve asked as she stopped. "Stella is fine Captain Rogers." "Please call me Steve." He corrected with a soft smile as she returned the action.

"Steve, I apologize for my unprofessional attitude. I'm not normally like that, but Tony just has a way of…" She trailed off shaking her head with a frustrated sigh.

"Yea I know what you mean. Take it you know him well?" He asked as they walked down the hallway.

"Unfortunately, yes." She responded with a shake of her head. Well even if she had once been a flame of Tony's there was nothing but disdain left for him.

Walking into the laboratory just as Tony poked Dr. Banner with something Steve felt his temper flare at Tony's recklessness.

"Hey!"

"Nothing?" Tony asked as Bruce shook his head at his new friend's antics.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked as Tony shrugged.

"Jury's out. You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony asked Bruce who just ignored him and turned to look at Stella who seemed annoyed as she walked over to Dr. Banner.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked as Tony turned to look at him. "Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc." Steve added turning to Bruce to make sure he hadn't crossed a line with his new co-worker.

"No it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce added as Stella smiled.

For as much pressure Bruce was under, he seemed to have a good sense of humor.

Probably needed it.

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony added as Stella turned to him with an incredulous look.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She asked as he shrugged.

"Doctor's can't quite figure it all out." He answered with a sarcastic grin as Steve shook his head.

"You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve added as Stella nodded her agreement.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked, never one to like secrets.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's thee spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony added before turning to look at Bruce.

"It's bugging you too, isn't it?" He asked Bruce who put his hands up surrender.

"Uh, Aah, I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Steve interrupted, sensing that Bruce was holding something back, other than the big guy.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube." Bruce began as Steve nodded.

"I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you." He said gesturing to Tony who offered over the bag of blueberries he had just opened.

"Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news." He continued as Steve frowned and Stella turned to focus in on the conversation.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Steve began only to stop when he saw the look on Tony's face. "-building in New York?" He finished as Tony rolled his eyes.

"It's powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce asked as Stella turned to look at Tony, shocked at his philanthropic idea.

"It's just the prototype." He began seeing the confused look on Stella and Steve's faces.

"I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at." He finished with a cocky shrug.

"You?" Stella asked as Tony picked up on the disbelief in her tone.

"I've changed Stell. You have no idea." He stated as she nodded.

"Apparently not." She added before shaking her head wondering what else she had missed out on living out of the country.

"Right, well, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce finished his thought as Stella and Steve shared a look.

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony said as Steve shook his head trying to comprehend it all.

"I'm sorry did you say-"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Tony stated as Stella turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"You brought JARVIS?" She asked as he grinned and Bruce looked at them confused.

"JARVIS?" Bruce asked as Tony nodded.

"It's my butler." He stated as Stella rolled her eyes at Tony's flippant response.

"It's a highly sophisticated and incredibly advanced. A.I. that runs Tony's life."

"No Pepper runs my life, JARVIS run my electronics." Tony snarked as Stella rolled her eyes once more, something she did often around Tony.

"I take it you built it?" Bruce asked Tony who in turn looked at Stella.

"Actually I built it, when Tony was 17." Stella corrected turning back to her computer screen.

"A parting gift right." Tony snapped a little crueler than intended.

"Well it's been completely updated since then…" He continued, trying to reign in his emotions better.

He hated that she was still able to get under his skin so easily.

"I'm sure it has. And now it travels with you, so you can hack into anything." She mumbled, never looking away from the screen.

"All I packed was a toothbrush." Bruce added as Tony chuckled.

"You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors all R and D. You'd love it, it's a candy land." Tony told Bruce who gave a polite but strained smile.

"Thanks but...last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem." He mumbled, not wanting to think about his last adventure there.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." He added before zapping Bruce in the side once more as Steve stepped closer.

"And yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"Maybe it's not the intelligence they fear but the maturity of the man." Stella added as Steve fought down a smirk.

"I uh, I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." Steve added as Bruce nodded and went back to study Loki's staff while Stella entered some calculations into the computer.

"Following's not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve snapped back as Tony stepped towards him.

"Out of the people in this room, which one is "A" wearing a spangly outfit and "B" not of use?" He snapped, having about enough of this goody two shoes.

"Tony…" Stella chided only for Bruce to interrupt.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce asked as Steve turned to look at all of them before shaking his head.

"Just find the Cube." He snapped before leaving the lab.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." Tony said as Stella turned to look at him.

"You're just jealous Tony. I can definitely see why he was always talked about."

"Doth I detect Stella hath a crush?" He teased as she rolled her eyes, but blushed a little.

"I just met the guy Tony. All I'm saying is so far he's shown he actually cares about what we're supposed to be doing…and he's a gentleman. Can we say the same about you?" She snapped defensively as Bruce cleared his throat not liking the tension.

"Guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us." Bruce added as Tony looked away from Stella and back at Bruce with a shake of his head.

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does." "I'll read all about it." Bruce mumbled as Tony grinned.

"Mhm, or, you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." He added as Stella turned to look at Bruce before shaking her head.

"_Don't even think about it Stell. You're here for a job. Do your job and go home." _ She thought as Bruce laughed incredulously at Tony's statement.

"No, you see I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve, it's a nightmare." Bruce said as Stella looked back down at her hands before closing them tightly.

"You know, I've get a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it-" He started as Stella's stomach dropped when she heard Tony's statement.

Turning to face him she then remembered the blue light she had seen earlier beaming from under his shirt.

"That's what that is?" She asked as Tony froze, remembering Stella was in the room.

"Did you think it was some new fashion statement?" He snapped defensively as she winced.

"Considering it was you, I wasn't sure." She snapped back before shaking her head to reel in her temper.

"When did it happen?" She asked as he sighed.

"When I was kidnapped."

"You were kidnapped?" Stella asked stunned as the blood drained from her face in panic at the thought of something happening to Tony.

She might despise him but it didn't mean she wanted anything to happen to him.

"Yea…a lot happens in 15 years Stell. Surprised you didn't hear about it."

"Well I've been out of the country." She whispered as he shook his head.

"Even Europe gets the news…"

"Not where I've been. Tony…" She began as he shook his head once more to end the conversation.

"Point is Banner…this little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege." He interrupted, not about to rehash his past with Stella when she's been gone for 15 years.

"But you can control it." Bruce said as Tony nodded.

"Because I learned how."

"It's different." Bruce whispered looking back at the computer screen in front of him.

Shaking his head, Tony wiped away all the windows on the computer screen that Bruce was working on.

"Hey, I read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure should've killed you." He said as Bruce chuckled wryly.

"So you're saying that the Hulk-uh, the Other Guy- saved my life? That's nice. That's a nice sentiment. Saved it for- what?" He asked as Tony shrugged.

"I guess we'll find out."

"You may not enjoy that." Bruce added as Tony nodded.

"And you just might." Tony said with a smirk before moving to his computer.


	4. Relationships Revealed

They worked in relative silence as Tony continued to try and hack into the system database, only to be denied.

"I don't understand." He mumbled as Stella walked over.

"Try this…" She stated quickly swiping screens around and tapping furiously on each before she get through to the computers central nervous system and into the mainframe to bypass the security vault.

"Wow…" Bruce said as Stella hit a few more maneuvers before it beeped and hundreds of windows opened.

"Not bad." Tony said as Stella shrugged.

"Maybe you should've stuck around MIT a little longer Tony. 15 years old may have been too young." She mumbled with a shrug before going back over to the one she was working on.

Tony began searching through the windows that had opened trying to find what he was looking for.

"Models locked Bruce. We're sweeping for a signature now." Stella announced as Bruce nodded and Tony made an ah-ha noise.

"Phase 2." He said aloud as Bruce turned to walk over to Tony's computer.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury asked walking into the laboratory.

The computers sensed the hacking and Fury knew instantly where it was coming from.

"Uh- kind of been wondering the same thing about you?" Tony asked as Fury scowled at him.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury stated as Bruce nodded.

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce stated pointing towards the monitor as Tony nodded.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?" Tony asked as the door opened and Steve walked in slamming a large gun on the table.

"Phase Two is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons." He stated before turning to look over at Tony.

"Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me." He said as Fury shook his head.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-" Fury tried to explain only to be interrupted by Tony.

"I'm sorry, Nick…" Tony began turning the screen towards all of them and they could see the blue print for a missile.

"What were you lying?" He asked smarmily as Nick shook his head.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve stated as the doors opened again and Thor and Natasha walked in.

"_Now it's a party." _Stella thought sensing the situation was about to get very bad.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha as she turned to look at all of them.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha said as everyone turned too look at Bruce.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." Bruce mumbled with an incredulous laugh.

"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha said as Stella closed her eyes, able to tell something was off in the room.

It felt like some sort of energy source was pulsating in the room now that all of them were in it.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." She corrected as Stella frowned, the energy in the room felt was heavy and she had to place her hand on the table to anchor herself under it.

The probing was back in her brain, and she tried to block it out.

"He came here to help. And that's what we're all trying to do." Stella interjected to try and calm the room down as they turned to look at her.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce snapped as Stella shook her head, it wasn't working.

To her, the room felt like it was crackling and she gripped the table to fight back on it, or try and figure out where it was coming from.

Steve watched with worried eyes as Stella grabbed hold of the table, looking almost like she was in pain.

"I think everyone needs to calm down."

"I agree. I think that is a good idea." Natasha said looking to Banner as Steve watched Stella rub her temples, was she okay? Should he say something?

"_Maybe it's just a head ache from all the tension in the room."_ He thought turning to look back at Bruce.

"I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Bruce asked as the others agreed.

"Because of him." Fury said pointing to Thor.

"Me?" He asked shocked.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town.

We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly and hilariously, out-gunned." Fury continued as Thor shook his head.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled." Fury argued as Steve stepped in.

"Like you controlled the cube!" He spat out tired of all the lies.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for A HIGHER FORM OF WAR." Thor argued as Steve shook his head.

"A higher form?!" He asked realizing this would be nothing like any war he ever fought.

"You forced our hand! We had to come up with some-"

"Nuclear deterrent! 'Cause that always calms everything right down." Tony interrupted, as Fury grew agitated.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury snapped as Stella stepped in, not about to let Tony be lambasted because of Howard's choices.

"Our Father…" Stella began.

"Wait our Father?" Steve asked looking at her as the familiarity finally sunk in.

"Yes, Howard Stark was _our,_ me and Tony's father." She clarified as everyone turned to look at Tony for validation.

"Half sister. Same dad, different mom. But yes, Stella Patillo is actually Stella Stark." He said before turning to look at Fury.

"But I'm sure you already knew that." Tony added.

"I did my research. There is a lot I know Ms. Stark." He said looking at Stella who swallowed down the lump in her throat.

So it hadn't been just a coincidence.

"Is that why you brought me in then? It had nothing to do with my work you want my skills." She asked as Tony looked at her confused.

"What skills? You have the same skills as I do." He stated as Fury smirked.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's been keeping secrets, am I Stark?" He said as Tony frowned and the others turned to look at her curiously.

"I don't see how this is about me, you're the one who brought us all here under false pretenses." She snapped to get the attention off of her.

Tony still glared at her wondering what the hell Fury was talking about.

"She's right. And I'm sure that if Tony still made weapons, he would be neck deep-"

"Wait-Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony snapped, looking away from Stella and over at Steve who had made the comment.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" He added as Tony stepped towards him to challenge him.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor asked as everyone began to argue, and the tension in the room escalated.

Stella could feel the negative energy shift higher, it was making her head hurt. Something, or someone was manipulating the room for a purpose.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury snapped at Thor.

"Such mistrust for your champion." Thor replied confused.

"YOU'RE NOT MY CHAMPION!" He yelled as Natasha shook her head.

"Are you all really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats." She said as Tony turned to look at Thor and Steve.

"You furious? I'm furious?" He asked as Stella looked at Natasha.

"And Captain America is on the threat poll?" She asked shocked that they could see him as a threat.

"We all are!" Natasha said exasperated as Fury turned to Stella.

"That's not your concern doctor!" Fury snapped at her.

"You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony asked Steve sarcastically.

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack.."

"You're a threat. VERBAL THREAT! I FEEL THREATENED!" Tony continued to egg Steve on.

"SHOW SOME RESPECT TONY." Stella yelled at Tony.

"RESPECT WHAT!" He yelled, shocked that she would she take up for him.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor interrupted as Bruce shook his head.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're- we're a time bomb!" Bruce said as everyone turned to look at him.

"You need to step away." Fury said calmly.

"Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked as Steve glared at him.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" He demanded as Tony shook his head, ignoring Steve.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." He glared as Steve stepped up to him.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony rattled off as Steve glared at him.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve stated as Stella watched Tony flinch before fighting past it.

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." Steve said as Tony narrowed his eyes.

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." He snapped as Steve narrowed his eyes.

"Tony!" Stella interrupted as Tony shot a look at her.

"You're gonna take up for him Stella! You've known the guy 10 minutes and you're already on his side."

"You're acting like a child!"

"Well you'd know, the last time you were around I was one!"

"AND YOU'LL ALWAYS BE ONE! Steve's right! You're immature, irresponsible, and selfish. You always have been. The body may be a bottle Tony, but his character is what dad always bragged about. His character…something you'd know nothing about." Stella snapped as Tony locked his jaw and stared at Stella, hurt and shocked at the insult she had thrown at him and in front of everyone.

Stella dropped her mouth, shocked at her own statement and how quickly it had come out of her mouth. It's like it wasn't even her in that moment.

"Tony I'm…" She began only to be cut off by Bruce.

"Oh yea…this is a team." Bruce mumbled shaking his head as Fury turned to Natasha.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" "WHERE? YOU RENTED MY ROOM!" Banner yelled as Fury stepped forward and Stella closed her eyes once more as the energy started to stifle her.

The others weren't sensing it but something was in the air in that lab, something they weren't in control of.

"The cell was just-" "IN CASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME. BUT YOU CAN'T, I KNOW, I TRIED!" Banner yelled as everyone stopped to stare at him.

"I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth **and the** **other guy spit it out. **So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. **I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. **You wanna know my secret, AgentRomanoff? You wanna know how I staycalm?" He asked as everyone watched Banner with wide eyes while Natasha and Fury both reached for their guns.

"Doctor Banner, put down the scepter." Stella said as the blue gem inside glowed, and Bruce looked down, surprised, to see that he was holding scepter in his hand and Stella realized what the energy had been, or more like whom.

Suddenly the monitor began to beep.

Dropping the scepter back on the table Bruce walked over to the computer with Stella.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all." He mumbled going to the screen.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor asked as Tony stepped forward.

"I can get there faster." He said as Steve shook his head.

"Look, all of us-"

"The Tesseract belongs on Asguard, no human is a match for it." Thor argued as he moved to follow Tony.

Grabbing Tony's arm Steve stopped him from walking out the door.

"You're not going alone!" Steve stated as Tony smacked his hand away.

"You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out!"

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony challenged as Steve stepped closer.

"Put on the suit and lets go a few rounds." He said as they eyed each other.

"Tony that is enough!" Stella ordered and Fury couldn't believe when Tony actually seemed to stand down, even if it was only momentarily.

"Look the computer hasn't located the Tesseract yet so just relax okay. It was just beeping because it's picking up strong signals. But guys, we're all on the same team here so let's act like it all right. Now right now Loki wants to set Dr. Banner off and tear us apart, but considering he's locked in a cage and we've get his scepter why don't we all calm the hell down so we don't give Loki what he wants." Stella stated as everyone seemed to be embarrassed by their actions and the tension lifted from the air, giving Stella a little bit more strength now that she didn't feel like she was suffocating.

"Me and Bruce are searching for the Tesseract, we're doing our jobs so why don't you guys go do yours." She finished, as everyone looked around not sure what to do.

"You're definitely the older sibling." Fury finally said to break the silence as Stella cracked a smile.

"With a little brother like Tony you've got to be able to take control of a situation. Not that he ever listened." She said looking over at him who just gave her a smirk.

"All right. Well Dr. …?" Fury trailed off not sure what to call her.

"Stark is fine, since you all know."

"Right Well, Dr. Stark is right, we all get jobs to do so let's let them do theirs." He said looking to everyone to leave the room.

"You and I need to speak." Tony said to Fury who nodded.

"Follow me then." He said as Tony paused and turned to look at Stella.

"Forgot how it felt to be scolded by you."

"I forgot how fun it was to scold you." She replied, before giving him a playful smile as he walked out of the room behind Fury.


	5. Sparks Fly

**AN: Thanks so much to everyone who is reading and to Tara and Ami for your reviews! They are very helpful and encouraging! I am glad to see people are enjoying it so far! I'm enjoying writing it! Keep up the reviews! Very helpful to hear your guys thoughts! And with that...CHAPTER 5**

As soon as everyone had left the room, Stella moved to the scepter, eyeing it cautiously.

The blue gem was no longer glowing, but the weird energy still floated in the air.

"I wonder how they got a piece of the Tesseract into the scepter." Bruce mumbled aloud walking to it.

"Maybe it's a compound of elements. It might take the cube form as it's resting form but when if you get it down to the molecules you are able to shift and shape it to take the desired form." Stella added as she moved closer to examine it.

"I think that's how Hydra's weapons worked." Steve spoke up as he walked back into the room.

"Sorry, I know you're busy but I just wanted to look at the scepter. Loki had the ability to shoot it like gun…it just reminded me of Hydra." He said turning to look at Stella and Bruce.

"No, no it's fine." Bruce gestured towards it to invite Steve to view it closer.

"So you've dealt with the Tesseract before?" Stella asked walking towards Steve as he nodded, never taking his eyes off the scepter.

"Unfortunately yes. Back in my day it was the main weapon of Hydra. Johann Schimdt pulled the Tesseract out of its hiding place and used it to create weapons, much like SHIELD was planning to do apparently." Steve added as Bruce and Stella both nodded, wanting him to continue.

"Schmidt was the first test subject for the Super Serum, but it wasn't finished then and he reacted poorly to it." Steve said thinking of his battle with the Red Skull.

"He wanted to harness the powers of the Tesseract so that he could destroy America and start world domination. I was able to stop him, but…" Steve said trailing off as he remembered his last moments, and then Peggy's face flashed before his eyes.

Closing them he shook his head before turning to look over Stella, who had a warm sympathetic smile on her face.

"Is that what you were doing when…with the ice?" She asked gently as he nodded.

"Yea, there was a missile onboard, it was the only way to stop it." He remembered, wishing the thoughts would go away.

Placing her hand on top of his in a gesture Stella hoped would be reassuring; she felt the zing of electricity shoot through her body as his eyes turned to look at her.

They were such a beautiful blue, like a stormy sea trying to pull her into it.

Clearing her throat to break out of this hypnosis she looked away momentarily before looking back at him.

"That was incredibly brave Steve. And noble. I understand why my father spoke so highly of you." She whispered squeezing his hand gently shocked when he reciprocated the action.

"That's very nice of you to say." He whispered as her stomach fluttered nervously.

It had been a long time since a guy got her motor running, but Steve had it revving on all cylinders at that moment, and that was just by holding her hand.

"So uh, you're actually a Stark then." Bruce asked, unintentionally interrupting the moment as the two of them broke away from each other.

"Uh, yes." She agreed as Bruce looked over at them and suddenly realized what his question had interrupted and offered an apologetic smile.

"So why go by Patillo?" Steve asked curiously as Stella moved to one of the computers to begin entering in some equations needing to step away from the heat that was radiating off of Steve's well toned body.

"All though brilliant, my dad wasn't exactly a favorite in the scientific community, too idealistic and people thought he was a sell out for making weapons and such."

"I knew your dad…he was a good man." Steve added as Stella let out a scoff.

"Sure, if you weren't his kids." She mumbled before she could stop herself as Steve looked at her questioningly.

"Sorry…let's just say I have some daddy issues." She joked shaking her head as Bruce chuckled.

"Who doesn't?" He agreed knowing he probably had a laundry list of daddy issues.

"You and your father weren't very close?" Steve asked curiously, before he could stop himself.

"Uh, forgive me. That was rude to ask such a personal question. Ya know, I've uh…I've been asleep for 70 years so my social skills are a little…" He trailed off blushing as Stella looked over at him and gave him an encouraging smile.

"It's fine Steve. I think your sweet for being interested." She answered honestly, giving a slight chuckle at how adorable he was.

Watching the two of them Bruce couldn't help but shake his head at the obvious attraction.

Never one to stand in front of Cupid's arrow he decided now would be a good time for a quick bathroom break and he hoped maybe Steve would do better with out an audience.

Slipping out of the room quietly he figured they probably wouldn't even notice he was gone.

"You, umm…you think I'm sweet?" Steve asked, clearing his throat nervously.

He had never been good with talking to woman, let alone beautiful ones, and now here he was alone with one of the prettiest girls he'd ever met, and she had called him sweet.

"Very sweet." She responded stepping a little closer as Steve felt his heart begin to speed up.

Suddenly he was very aware how close Stella Stark was.

Stark…that's Tony's sister! You never go for your friend's sister.

"Tony." Steve grumbled as Stella's eyebrow shot up in shock that Steve was thinking about her brother.

"What?"

"Uhh…Tony, you're Tony's sister." He explained, taking a step back as Stella realized his thoughts and rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry Steve, we're not that close. He probably wouldn't even notice." She told him as she walked back over to her computer to enter the notes she had collected when Bruce had scanned the scepter.

"No I know, I just um, out of respect." He stated as she gave a laugh of contempt towards her brother.

"Respect for the man who called you a lab experiment. Boy Steve Rogers you sure a helluva guy. Why can't there be more of you around?" She asked looking over her shoulder at him as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Well he wasn't completely lying. I am a lab experiment." He added as she shook her head in disagreement.

"No, your body was a lab experiment. I um, I saw the, the before pictures…big difference." She said letting her eyes briefly scan his well-built structure, causing Steve to blush a little.

"But he was wrong to call you that, cause even if the body is from a bottle, your character is all you. I've read the information about you from my dad's old files, and I remember the way he talked about you, he always said that it was you're integrity that got you picked for the project. " She stated as Steve smiled at Howard's compliment of him.

"Well that was nice of your father to say." Steve responded not really sure what else to say.

"You look like him ya know, I noticed it when I first met you but I couldn't figure out why till you said it. Tony looks like him too. He actually reminds me a lot of your dad."

"Isn't that the truth, there is so much of my dad in Tony it's frightening. It's probably one of the reasons Tony and I didn't get along that well growing up." She added with a shrug.

"Yea, I noticed…you and Tony, umm…don't seem very close." He stumbled trying to find the right words to say without offending her.

"That's the understatement of the century. No, Tony and I don't get along very well. You can thank my father for that."

"Your father?"

"Do you…" She began before correcting herself remembering he'd been asleep for the past 70 years.

"Did you ever have an siblings Steve?" She asked turning to look at him as he shook his head no.

"No, I didn't think so. See with most siblings there is usually a little rivalry, it's pretty basic ya know, always trying to outdo the other, but when a parent shows favor to one over the other, the rivalry intensifies to a full blown resentment.

My father doted on Tony, his "boy". Ya know Tony was a genius from a young age, everything always came so easy to him, I had to work so hard to get where I am, and Tony…he was just…born. It's funny, I remember when he was first born I was so excited to have a baby brother, and me and him had actually been quite close, till I was about 12.

Tony was 7 and my mom had passed away from cancer so I was now living full time in the Stark Mansion instead of back and forth which I had been doing.

Once I was in the Stark world all the time, it soon became very clear that Tony was the golden child. I spent the next six years trying to get out of his shadow, to no avail. Everything I did Tony just, he had to one up it. I graduated from MIT at 20, but Tony graduated that same year, only at 15.

I built a model robot but Tony built an actual robot. It didn't matter what I did, Tony did it better. So after I graduated school I left. For the next two years I got my masters and worked on my doctorate, finally finding happiness…and then there was the plane crash.

Our father's plane crashed when Tony was 17 and it killed our dad and Maria, Tony's mom. Because he was still a minor my parents had made me his legal guardian.

God that was an interesting experience. Him and I were always fighting, both so angry at each other and at our dad. Finally, on the day of Tony's 18th birthday I left, it was my birthday present to him.

He was now 18, he didn't need me anymore so I took my stuff and moved to Europe to get my doctorate and decided to go by Patillo, my mom's name to do my work so I could finally break away from the Stark shadow, and that's where I've been." Stella stated, finishing off her story with a shrug.

Suddenly she felt her cheeks blush when she realized she had just unloaded her life story on Steve, a guy she "technically" barely knew.

"Oh my god Steve, oh I am so sorry. I can't believe I just dumped that all on you. What the hell is wrong with me?" She mumbled turning away from him completely humiliated.

She couldn't believe she had done that, normally Stella never told anyone anything about her past, let alone some guy she "barely" knew.

"No, no Stella it's fine. Really." He replied placing his hand on her shoulder to turn her to look him.

She had nothing to be embarrassed about, he had been happy to listen to her talk and get to know more about her.

"You're just being nice. You probably think I'm crazy now for unloading all that on to you." She mumbled still not turning to look at him, humiliated that she had just spilled her soul like that.

What the hell was wrong with her? That wasn't normal.

"Not at all Stella. Nothing you could say could make me think you were crazy." He answered turning her to look at him, and giving her what he hoped was a heartening smile.

"Thanks. I just…I never talk about that stuff with anyone. But you, I don't know it just sort of tumbled out with you." She whispered looking back up into those gentle blue eyes.

"I guess I just feel more comfortable around you than I realized. I mean my dad talked about you so much I feel I've known you my whole life, even though we're technically just meeting." She finished as Steve smiled at how beautiful she looked in that moment, staring at him with adoration and speaking such nice things about him.

"Well I feel honored." He stated as Stella smiled, feeling her stomach flutter with a million little butterflies.

His eyes locked with hers and his stomach started to dance when she continued to look at him, not breaking eye contact. He couldn't believe how nice it felt to talk to someone, even if he hadn't done much talking. It was just nice to connect with someone and not feel so alone. And she was so warm and sweet towards him.

In the moment he felt her moving closer as her tongue darted out to lick her lips slowly and incredibly sensually, her eyes never leaving his. Was that an invite? Was she inviting him to kiss her? He let his eyes move to look down at her pale pink lips; they looked so soft and full.

Looking back up into her soft jade eyes he felt his breath hitch as she began to lean closer, the heat radiating off her like waves, wrapping him in a warm blanket.

His heart rate increased as she placed her hand gently on his cheek to draw him closer to her, closing her eyes as she tilted her head up towards him as Steve leaned down, his lips inches from hers.


	6. Oh Brother

**AN: I am not in anyway shape or form a scientist, all my scientific words are googled and researched with the hopes of being somewhat correct. So sorry if it seems wrong to you science people. I did try my best :)**

Just then, the door opened and in walked Tony and Bruce followed a few seconds later by Thor.

Tony's eyes widened at the sight before him.

His sister and Captain America had been about 3 seconds away from what looked like a very intimate kiss.

"I'm sorry are we interrupting something?" He asked shocked at how annoyed he was with Steve in that moment.

"Uh, n-no, not at all. Steve and I were just talking." Stella mumbled as she dropped her hand and stepped back from Steve, both of them blushing and looking away from each other like two kids who had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

"Talking, really? Cause from where I was standing it looked like…"

"Do you need something Tony or did you just come by to annoy me again?" Stella snapped turning to face him with obvious annoyance in her eyes.

"Well I came by with a purpose, the annoyance was just a perk." He teased as Thor stepped towards her.

"Forgive me Sister of Stark, I do not mean to interrupt." Thor began as Stella chuckled at his formal language.

"You can call me Stella." She informed him as he nodded his appreciation.

"Thank you. Lady Stella, I do not mean to bother, but I was wondering if you and I might exchange remarks privately?" He asked as she turned to look at Steve not wanting to leave him, but knowing Tony was gonna keep being a shit and figured she was probably better off in that moment.

"Certainly. Real fast though..." She began turning to look at Bruce.

"Bruce, I changed the detection monitor to search for wavelengths with 10 Pico meters or less within a 7000 mile radius to help narrow it down. If nothing shows up when I get back we can both work on expanding the radius, I just wanted to give us a starting off point." She informed Bruce who nodded before she turned back to Thor and followed him out of the room, ignoring the look Tony gave her.

Walking down a hallway she followed him into a room, truly shocked at his size when he had to duck to enter the doorway.

"Lady Stella, I ask first for your forgiveness, for I did not mean to drop eaves but as I approached the laboratory I heard you speaking with the Captain of America." He began as she wondered what this was about.

"That's all right Thor." She said as he nodded his thanks.

"Thank you. However, while I was there I heard you speak of your brother, and your tales of growing up in his shadow." He continued as Stella nodded, realizing he had heard everything as well.

"_Great, he probably thinks I'm crazy too."_ "I mean not his literal shadow…" She began to clarify as Thor smiled at her.

"That I understood, it just, it struck me. As you know Loki is my brother and before the Man of Iron and the Captain of America arrived he spoke of growing up in my shadow and I realized that perhaps you could understand Loki in a way I could not, and I thought maybe you would help me." He asked as her eyes widened at his suggestion.

"Uh, I-I'm not really sure how, but I can certainly try." She offered as Thor stood up from the chairs that had taken seats in.

"Good. Then we shall go see Loki at once." He told Stella before she put her hands up to stop him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You want me to go and see Loki? T-the bad guy?" She asked as Thor stopped and frowned.

"Well yes. I thought there might be a chance he'd listen to you, for he is done listening to my reasoning."

"You want me to reason with him? Me? Are you serious?" She asked shell shocked and somewhat frightened.

"I jest not Lady Stella. You spoke of shadows and golden children like Loki had, you must understand him a little bit." He pleaded as she sighed.

"Well I mean, most siblings have those issues."

"Exactly, so you will speak with him?" He asked as she looked around not really sure what to say.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to. I mean, Director Fury…"

"Director Fury cannot decide who can and cannot see my brother." Thor stated strongly as Stella nodded, not wanting to piss the God off.

"Well I-I don't mind speaking with him, but umm…I don't know that it will do any good." She replied honestly as Thor placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.

"It can do no harm either." He stated before turning to walk out of the room, not bothering to see if Stella was even behind him.

"That's what you think." Stella mumbled following behind Thor towards Loki's room.

Thor took long strides and Stella struggled to keep up with him, nervous, anxious and beyond terrified at what lied in store for her.

From what she could remember about the stories of Loki, he was a god of mischief with a multitude of powers and abilities.

As they reached the doors to the room that held Loki's prison she grabbed Thor's arm to stop him.

"Ok I lied, I'm terrified. I don't think I can do this." She explained as Thor smiled down at her.

"Take heed Lady Stella, Loki cannot harm you in there. Nor does he want to, he has a bigger plan. Perhaps this can help dissolve it." He conciliated, patting her hand gently.

"I doubt it but I can see." She sighed as Thor opened the door and walked into the room.

"Loki, I have come to speak with you." Thor stated boldly as they walked into the room with Stella walking behind him not feeling near as bold as him.

"I was wondering when you would come and visit_._ But I see you did not come alone?" Loki asked with a wry grin as Stella stepped out from behind Thor.

"Stella Stark is it not?" He inquired as she nodded.

"How did you know that?" She asked curiously as Loki grinned at her.

"I make sure to always know who I am dealing with." He added as Stella swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling the probing again.

"So it's you trying to poke around." She asked taping at her temple as he gave a chuckle.

"And you somehow managed to keep me out…." He spoke softly, eyeing her before giving her a smile.

In any other circumstances his smile would seem charming, but in this moment...it terrified her.

"So tell me Stella, why has Thor brought you here, some form of appeal?" He asked as Stella turned to look up at Thor who nodded his encouragement.

"Thor seems to think that you and I have some things in common…however I beg to differ." She replied looking over the man behind the glass.

He was lean like a jungle cat with hungry eyes and hollowed features. His skin was pale and sickly and any other person Stella would've guessed the wind could blow them over, but Loki possessed a sense of strength beneath his vacant features.

"He does? Thor still believes humanity is attainable. An idealist that one is." Loki sneered as Thor remained in his spot.

"I will always believe Loki. You are not too far lost yet brother."

"_Brother__**, **_ah yes…your favorite word. You have a brother don't you Stella?"

"You know I do." She stated simply not sure what Loki's game was.

"Yes, the famous Anthony Stark." Loki added as he stared at Stella with calculating eyes.

"Another sibling trapped in a shadow of greatness, at least I know Thor was listening." He uttered turning to look at Thor who remained still, but Stella could see the pain in Thor's eyes at his brother's contempt towards him.

"A sibling of Shadow, we should start a club." Loki grinned smarmily towards Stella, before shooting Thor another hateful look.

"Fortunately for me my brother was just a genius, not a King." Stella responded not liking the way Loki was making Thor feel.

"He is NOT the king." Loki snapped, eyes narrowed and hateful, causing Stella to take a step back out of fear.

"Nor are you Loki." Thor added softly to try and pacify his little brother.

"I should be king." Loki stated eyes narrowed intensely on Thor.

"Is that what all this is about?" Stella asked as Loki turned his hateful gaze from Thor onto her.

"There is so much more." Loki added turning back to look at Thor.

"Is there? You can't have Asguard so you come to our planet to create your own kingdom?" Stella asked putting the pieces together, and slowly beginning to find her strength, seeing Loki for what he really was.

A bitter sibling who never learned how to step out of the shadow and carve their own life.

It was easier for Loki to blame his troubles on Thor to own up to the fact that he had never chosen to step away.

"And the midgauardian catches up." He mumbled taking a seat on the small bench in the chamber.

"Where is the Tesseract Loki?" Thor asked stepping towards the cage as Loki feigned boredom.

"Apparently, you _weren't_ listening. I sent it off remember." He responded turning to look back at Stella.

"That's why you're here isn't it? To try and find it and stop my _evil_ plans?" He asked with contempt as she sighed.

"Partially. But because Thor thought I might be able to help." She added as Loki stood up with a scoff.

"A midgaurdian, help?" He asked narrowing his eyes at her as the probing was back.

"A special one at that. Perhaps you might join my side." He began as Stella narrowed her eyes at him.

"You won't win. You know that right?" She stated as Loki moved towards her.

"Is that right?"

"It is right. Revenge, it's…petty. We've already almost located the Tesseract. And then what Loki?"

"_Almost_ being the key word there then. You don't have it yet."

"Nor do you have it any longer. We will find it. And we will stop you." She stated as Thor looked down at her, shocked by the way the small woman was standing up to Loki.

"And how do you plan on doing that? I'd hardly say your little _team_ is capable."

"Our little _team_ has already captured you."

"Captured? How do you know this wasn't part of my plan all along?"

"No, thanks to Natasha we know your plan, you want to unleash the Hulk. But we stopped that didn't we."

"You're a clever little quim aren't you? You honestly think I'd only have one plan." He asked as Thor stepped forward.

"What are you trying to do Loki?" He asked as Stella turned to look up at Thor.

"He won't tell us." She stated before turning to look back at Loki.

"You are a quick one Stella Stark._" _Loki stated eyeing her once more, realizing he might have underestimate the little midguardian.

"You don't know me." Stella added in anger, not about to let Loki get under her skin.

"Oh I know you quite well. The first-born, the rightful heir. You should've been daddy's favorite but then his bouncing baby boy arrived and suddenly Stella is forgotten. You struggled to win his approval over and over, you even go to his alma mater…"

"How did you know that?"

"Remember Stella Stark, I make sure to know who I am dealing with." He spoke calmly, eyeing her as she locked her jaw and felt him probe harder and she struggled to blocked him out.

"How is your mind blocked?" He asked as she smirked.

"Apparently you don't really know who you are dealing with." She responded as Loki raised an eyebrow at her, slightly impressed by her skills.

"Stella Stark you are full of secrets aren't you?"

"Aren't we all?" She asked rhetorically as Loki grinned.

"And does your brother know the secrets you keep."

"They wouldn't be secrets if he did."

"I see. Apparently we have a lot more in common than you'd like to believe."

"That's where our commonalty stops. I may have secrets and I may not have liked living in my brother's shadow, but I never wanted to kill him."

"Well then I can do it for you. Or better yet, have you do it." He expressed, tapping his head as Stella clenched her fists shut tightly to control herself.

"_Do not let him get the better of you Stella."_ She thought before placing a smile on her face.

"You think you're any different Loki? You try and come in here…" She began tapping her temple once more.

"And manipulate my insecurities, in hopes that what I'd turn on my team? My brother? And all of this because daddy dearest didn't love you best? Loki you're nothing more than a jealous sibling, trapped in a spiteful rage seeking revenge." She snapped as Loki curled his hands into fists as he tried to contain his rage.

"It is no wonder you never got out of Thor's shadow. You think too small minded. Revenge… against whom, against Thor, against Asguard? You really think you will win over your father's approval that way, by enslaving an inferior race? I mean we both know that's what you really want? Daddy's validation?" She continued, closing her eyes as she felt like something slammed against her brain, hard.

"That's enough." He stated as Thor looked down at Stella confused as she shook of the slam.

"Hardly. You're never gonna win. Not against us. You've already tried, and we both know it didn't work out too well. Unleash the beast, turn the team against each other, manipulate and have them self-implode."

"You have no idea who you are dealing with Stella Stark!"

"And you underestimate your enemies Loki!" She snapped as she felt the slam again, causing her to stumble back as Thor caught her.

"LOKI ENOUGH!" Thor commanded as Loki trained his gaze on Stella who was trying to shake it off once more.

"_You have no idea what I am capable of Stella Stark." _Loki sent to her telepathically having knocked some of her guards down, before sending a picture of Tony being tortured and screaming in agony.

"YOU EVEN THINK OF TOUCHING MY BROTHER AND SO HELP ME LOKI I DON'T CARE WHAT IS COSTS BUT I WILL DESTROY YOU!" She yelled out loud feeling her rage build up and her hands start to tingle.

Closing them in tight fists she locked her jaw before putting a mental lock back on to keep him out.

"You're never going to get your domination of humanity. You are not going to win! You are going up against a laundry list of extraordinary people who will never bow down to you."

"Maybe not by choice, but power always has a way of winning." He informed her as Stella narrowed her eyes to let him know she would not be intimidated.

"And pride always comes before the fall." She stated before looking up at Thor, who seemed confused and saddened by it all.

"I came in on the request of Thor to see if maybe we could understand each other a little bit, both being a _sibling of shadows_ as you so poetically put it. But I realized talking to you, that even if I was raised in Tony's shadow, I grew out of it. Maybe you wouldn't be such a miserable little _quim_ if you had learned." She affirmed as she turned to walk out of the room.

"How sweet, a sentiment for your brother. After I kill him Stella, maybe you could give his eulogy." He added as she turned around with hateful eyes, feeling her hands burn.

"Good luck." She declared with a sardonic smirk before turning and walking out of the room leaving Thor behind.


	7. Engine Explosions

**AN: Thanks xxTara for the reviews! They are keeping me inspired! So with your request, Chapter 7!**

Once Stella was far enough away she placed her back up against a wall as she struggled to catch her breath and reign in her emotions.

She felt emotionally wrecked and physically sick from the encounter.

Closing her eyes she was lambasted with the image of Tony again bloodied, bruised and screaming in agony.

Suddenly she felt the contents of her stomach make their way to the surface and she turned and spewed them into the nearest trashcan.

When she was finished she felt a hand on her back causing her to jump and whirl around to see Thor standing there.

"Thor." She gasped, wiping at her mouth as he gave her an apologetic look.

"I apologize Lady Stella..." He began as she shook her head at him.

"No, no, it's fine, I was just startled…"

"Not for that. For Loki, I did not realize…" He began as she silenced him with a simple head shake.

"It's fine."

"Are you all right?" He asked concerned as she nodded.

"Yea, yes. Yes I'm fine, It just, took me by surprise."

"You are not the only one. That man in there…that is not the brother I grew up with. I do not even know him anymore." He whispered, shaking his head sadly as he thought of the younger sibling that he had played with.

"I'm sorry Thor." She began placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as he sighed.

"Loki is..." She trailed off as he nodded his understanding.

"Then our only hope right now is to locate the Tesseract. If we are able to locate it, that then we can end Loki's plan." He stated as she nodded her agreement and went to remove her hand.

"Lady Stella…" He began placing his hand on top of hers, before taking it in his gently.

"Thank you for Trying. It could not have been easy. Especially the pain Loki may have caused you." He stated sincerely as she smiled her thanks.

"I'm sure, if it was my brother in there, I would be doing everything in my power too." She spoke honestly as he gave her a sad smile.

"I know." He whispered before looking her in her eyes.

"You have the heart of an Asgaurdian Warrior Lady Stella. It will be an honor to battle beside you." He complimented as her eyes widened at the sentiment and the fact that he stated they were going to battle.

"_Asgaurdian's were never see-ers right?"_ She thought to herself before smiling at Thor.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." She whispered as Thor smiled at the nervous expression on her face.

"But…thank you." She added with a slight blush knowing what compliment that was coming from him as he nodded, patting her hand gently before releasing it.

"Come, let us go back to the laboratory and find the Tesseract to put an end to Loki's schemes." Thor stated before they both turned to walk back to the lab.

As Stella walked into the room she noticed Steve was gone but Bruce and Tony were in there.

Tony looked up at her with a concerned expression and worried eyes.

"What?" She asked as he scowled, walking towards her.

"Ya know that the cell room is monitored right?" He asked as she put on a brave face and rolled her eyes.

"So?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"What did he do to you?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Stella…did he show you something to make you react so…I mean about me?" Tony trailed off as Stella looked at his face before the bloodied, bruised face clouded her image and she blinked it away.

"Nothing. No. Let's just get back to work." She snapped looking away from Tony and over at Bruce who quickly looked away as if he hadn't been watching.

Just then the doors opened and in walked Fury with Natasha right behind him.

"Stark!" He snapped as Stella and Tony both turned to look at him, not sure who he was talking too.

"Girl Stark. Who the hell authorized you to go visit the prisoner?" He growled out as she froze.

"I did." Thor spoke up, not about to let Stella get yelled at for his actions.

"And who authorized you?" Fury asked as Thor narrowed his eyes.

"Authorization is not needed for a son of Odin." He stated as Steve came walking into the room when he heard all the commotion.

"Well we're not on Asguard are we? No we're on Earth, and on earth when a prisoner is locked up you better damn well believe you need authorization!" Fury snapped before turning to look at Stella.

"And you, what the hell were you thinking going in there alone?"

"In where alone?" Steve asked as Stella narrowed her eyes at Fury, not about to get scolded like some school-aged child.

"I was thinking that we should be trying every alternative to save the planet, if Thor thought maybe I could help you better well believe I'm going to. That's why I'm here isn't it? To help?" She retorted as Steve turned to look at her, confused and worried that Stella might have been in danger.

"You went to visit Loki alone?" He asked softly as Tony narrowed his eyes.

"What do you care what she does?" He asked, feeling a weird protective brother vibe hit him.

"Because I care about her safety." Steve stated as Stella blushed with a small smile and Tony rolled his eyes.

"And you're saying I don't."

"I don't think anyone said that Tony…" Stella began only to have Tony shoot her a "shut up" look.

"Why is it that every time we're all in the same room it feels like a volcano waiting to erupt?" Natasha asked looking over at Bruce nervously who shook his head.

"Because we are all a volcano waiting to erupt. This, group of, what, super freaks that the Director thinks can work together? Between the seven of us we got more baggage than we know what to do with." Bruce stated, forcing himself to calm down as he moved to get back to work and Steve and Tony stared each other down.

"I think you and I have some unfinished business Cap." Tony informed as Steve nodded his agreement, never one to back down.

"So put on your suit and let's finish it." He answered back, when suddenly the computer that had been scanning for the Tesseract beeped.

"We found it!" Stella exclaimed as Bruce rushed over to the computer, eyes widening by what was on screen.

"Oh my god." He whispered as everyone turned to look at him.

Suddenly an explosion was heard as the ship rocked sending everyone flying around the room and Bruce and Natasha tossed down out of the room to the floor below.

Steve and Tony both quickly scrambled to their feet to go see what had happened.

"Put on the suit." Steve said helping Tony out of the room.

"Yep." Tony agreed as they rushed down the hall but not before Steve glanced back to make sure Stella was okay.

Once Steve saw Thor quickly stand up to help Stella from the floor he followed Tony down the hall.

"Hill?" Fury asked into his earpiece, groaning as he sat up.

"Are you all right Lady Stella?" Thor asked as she nodded slightly shaken but nonetheless okay.

"I'm fine. What about Dr. Banner?" She asked as Thor moved to look out the window where Bruce and Natasha had fallen.

"Banner and Lady Natasha seem to have fallen to where I cannot see." Thor responded as Fury continued talking on his earpiece.

"Romanoff?" he shouted into it as he, Stella and Thor moved to leave the room and head to the bridge.

Chaos erupted as people ran by with guns and alarms blared all around them while everyone scrambled to try and figure out what was going on.

"Stark you copy that?" Fury asked into his earpiece as Stella felt her stomach clench at the thought of Tony doing something dangerous.

In that moment, she very much regretted her earlier words to him about being selfish and hoped he wouldn't do something stupid to try and prove her wrong.

"Thor, find Romanoff and Banner, make sure he's okay." Fury commanded as Thor nodded and headed off in a different direction while the two of them moved to the bridge.

"Talk to me." Fury commanded as they walked onto the bridge.

"Stark and Rogers are headed to Engine three, but the whole system is down right now." Agent Hill said as Fury nodded to let her know he'd heard her.

"Bring the carrier to a one-eight-zero south. Take us to the water." Fury commanded as one of the other agents spoke up.

"We're blind. Navigation recalibrated after the engine failure." He stated as Fury turned to look at him.

"Is the sun coming up?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then put us on the left. Get us over water. One more turbine goes down then we drop." He commanded before turning to look at Stella.

"Let's hope your brother can fix that engine, otherwise your skills might have to come in handy." He informed her, as her eyes widened and she felt like the breath had been sucked from her lungs.

"I-I don't think I have the skills for that." She whispered knowing there was no way she'd be able to do what he was thinking.

"Don't underestimate yourself Stark." He stated before turning his attention back to the action and Stella realized what she needed to do.

"I better make sure he can." She whispered to herself as she made her way to engine three.


	8. Accidents Exposed

**AN: Oh my goodness, xxTara and AdonCA you're reviews were so wonderful! I feel so honored! Thank you so much for your compliments. I hope you continue to enjoy the story because I am enjoying writing it! Seriously, Thank you you guys! **

Arriving at the damaged Engine Steve contacted Tony to try and figure out a plan.

"Stark! Stark, I'm here." Steve announced as Tony came flying past him in his Iron Man suit to survey the damaged engine.

"Good. Let's see what we got." Tony muttered to himself as he began to examine the engine and let JARVIS scan through the different levels of machinery.

"I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris." He mumbled to himself.

"Ok Cap, I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." Tony told Steve as he began to work on the engine.

"What's it look like in there?" Tony asked hearing a minute of silence before Steve's voice finally chimed in.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity." Steve mumbled staring at the different wires and colors running through the control panel as Tony shook his head at Steve's tone.

"Well, you're not wrong." He agreed, wishing he could have Stella looking at it, she'd know exactly what to do.

"Stella?" Steve asked moments later as it chimed in over their headpiece.

"Yea I thought you might need some help." Tony heard his sister voice say as he blasted away some debris from the engine with his unibeam.

"Took you long enough." Tony teased sarcastically, unable to hide his smile.

"Well I'm here so let me take a look at what we have." She stated making her way over to Steve.

The engine's catwalk was in risky shape but she managed to maneuver over to him and once she was below him, Steve pulled her up to where he was standing.

"Wow." She whispered impressed by his strength.

"What's going on guys? Tony asked continuing to work at dislodging debris.

"Okay, I'm here…let me see…" She trailed off before beginning to work on the giant board of electricity.

Steve watched in awe at the way she tweaked and moved different wires around like giant jigsaw puzzle before stepping back and pushing the mainframe back into place.

"Okay Tony the relays are intact. What's our next move?" She asked, as Steve stood momentarily stunned by how fast she had done all of that.

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump...I'm gonna have to get in there and push." Tony said out loud as Steve's eyes widened, realizing what that would mean.

"Well, if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!"

"Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that should-"

"Speak English!" Steve interrupted as Stella smiled at his obvious frustration.

"See that red lever?" Tony asked as Steve turned to see a red level near him.

"It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word." Tony stated as Steve made his way to the red lever and Stella stood by the mainframe just in case.

Tony continued to work at sawing off pieces of debris with his laser before jumping on them and knocking them off the rotors as Steve stood anxiously at the lever.

Suddenly Steve spotted some men coming down the hallway towards them and wondered if they were friendlies or foes.

"Find Cover Stella." Steve told her not wanting to take any chances.

"Steve…" She asked just as one of them tossed a grenade towards Tony not seeing Steve.

Without a second thought, Steve jumped through the air smacking the grenade down like a volleyball and landing on the opposite side of the lever, fighting off the men.

Throwing one of them off the carrier he jumped up on a catwalk and grabbed the first guy's machine gun firing at the second man.

"Stark, we're losing altitude." Fury stated over the intercom as Stella ducked behind some machinery to protect herself from the gunfire.

"Yep, noticed." Tony answered as he flew between the rotors and began to push on the blades to get them spinning.

Steve fought hand to hand with one of the gunman and suddenly he was forced over the edge when he threw the gunman over it.

"STEVE!" Stella yelled just as Steve grabbed a wire at the last possible second, and tried to get his bearings back to climb up the wire.

Tony hadn't heard Stella's cry for Steve and was unaware to Steve's situation, while he continued to work on getting the blades rotating using the strength of his Iron Man suit by manually moving the huge rotors.

Pushing the blades with all his might he used his rocket blasters to speed them up and they begun to spin faster and faster before spinning on their own.

"Cap hit the lever!" Tony yelled as Stella heard gunman fire at them and before she could stop herself she instinctively reached out with her mind and ripped the gun from the guy's body telepathically, tossing it off the ship.

The gunman refused to let go and ended up tumbling with the gun off the catwalk as Stella turned to Steve and used her telekinesis to pull Steve back up onto the catwalk with all her strength.

"Lever! Now!" Tony commanded as the blades spun faster and faster.

Suddenly Tony was pushed back up against one of the rotors, and he realized they were now moving to fast for him to escape.

"Uh-oh." He whispered as he was sucked up in the blades and spinning wildly.

Stella finally had Steve back on the catwalk and as soon as she dropped him safely he jumped up and rushed over to the lever.

Just then Stella heard the sound of gunmen behind her and turning around quickly she placed her hands up shooting powerful electrical blasts from her fingers taking down the gunman as Tony flew around just in time to witness his sister's display.

"Holy Shit." He gasped realizing now what she meant when she spoke of her other skills with Fury.

Shocked and surprisingly outraged that Stella had been keeping that from him, Tony flew away before Stella could turn around and he went to put his suit away.

"Thank you for the help back there." Steve said jumping down to where she was and looking down at her hands as she smiled bashfully.

"My pleasure." She answered folding them across her chest, embarrassed by the powers that came from them.

"We better get inside." He announced wrapping his arm around her, bringing her warm body close to his as he jumped both of them down to the lower catwalk with the door.

She held tightly liking the way his hard panes felt against her and mentally kicked herself knowing now was definitely not the time or place to be having any thoughts like that.

"We, uh better go inside." Steve repeated, slightly dazed by the effects she had over him, and having her so close to his body.

"Y-yea." She stuttered instantly feeling the loss of his body heat when he removed his arm from around her waist.

The commotion had somewhat died down but they continued towards the bridge with caution just in case there were some enemy men still on board.

"Agent Coulson is down." Fury's voice suddenly came on over their earpieces and both Steve and Stella stopped walking to listen intently.

"_A medical team is on its way to your location." _Someone replied to Fury.

"They're here." He spoke quietly, and everyone waited to hear the news.

"They called it." He informed moments later and it was like a cold chill rushed through the whole Helicarrier.

Stella looked up at Steve who dropped his head solemnly with sadness in his eyes.

Placing her hand on his shoulder for comfort he gave her a soft smile before they quietly headed to the bridge.

By the time they got there Tony was already waiting at the table on the bridge with Fury and Hill.

As Steve and Stella took a seat at the table Tony turned to look at his sister, with questions in his eyes.

"_Had he seen her use her powers_?" She wondered taking the seat in between Tony and Steve.

Pulling out a handful of cards Fury turned to look at the three of them.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." He mumbled tossing them towards Captain America.

Seeing his picture on them, Steve grabbed one noticing the blood on it and realizing what they were.

"_They're a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near Mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..."_ Steve heard Phil's voice in his head and couldn't help but smile sadly, wishing he'd been able to sign them for him.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you."

"Lost my one good eye. Guess I had that coming." Fury uttered as he shook his head sadly, before looking at the three of them.

"I explained some of this to Tony already, but yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Tony knows this, called the Avengers Initiative." Fury began to explain placing his hand on the chair next to Steve.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea." He paused as Stella turned to look at Tony sensing his sadness and anger as if it were her own.

"In heroes." Fury emphasized as Tony stood up and walked out, not able to listen to anymore of it.

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Fury mumbled as Stella stood up to go after Tony and Steve sat in the chair quietly staring at the cards.


	9. Explanations and Epiphanies

**AN: Once again just a little reminder...not a scientist ;)**

"Tony?" Stella asked following him down the hall as he continued to walk away from her.

"Tony wait." She called as he paused outside of the room where the cylindrical glass cage had been not even an hour ago, and the room that had claimed Agent Coulson's life.

Turing to look at her, he shook his head not sure what to say.

"I'm sorry about your friend." She began walking towards him as he sighed not wanting to think about Phil right then.

"So what the hell was that out there by the engine Stell?" Tony asked as Stella rubbed the back of her neck, nervously.

"I take it you saw?" She asked as he gave her a "you think" look.

"Guess you weren't the only one with a couple of secrets." She started, looking at his arc reactor as he rolled his eyes.

"Mine was never a secret, but that…that display I just saw well I'd say secrets is an understatement. Seriously, what the hell was that? I mean did you invent some sort of electrical device that shoots lightening bolts from your finger tips or something?" He asked walking towards her as she sighed, and looked down at her hands.

"No. I wish it was that. It happened 4 years ago. Apparently about the time you got kidnapped." She whispered looking at the arc reactor once more with worry.

"I was working on an experiment in Russia, it had to with different levels of Vita Rays and their effects when combined with electric fields, but it went wrong. They reacted negatively and combusted and I get caught in the blast." She explained as Tony shook his head in disbelief.

"How very Bruce Banner." He mumbled as she chuckled half heartily but knew just how true the statement was.

"My thoughts exactly. Suddenly I had all these powers. Things I could do with my mind. Mostly telekinesis, which I've learned to control, but man, in the beginning every time I walked past something it was floating in the air." She joked trying to get Tony to smile…to no effect.

"Well, anyway, shortly after other side effects showed up, the electrical blast thing and there's a shield and a few others, like telepathy. That's why Loki said my mind was blocked. He has the skill too and was trying to read my mind, but he couldn't." She stated as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"So…you can read minds?"

"Yes, I can. But I don't." She informed as he widened his eyes.

"You don't? What do you mean you don't? Why the hell not?"

"It's not fair. You can't read my mind, but I can read yours."

"Fair…god you were always such a diplomat Stella."

"No, I just have integrity."

"Integrity…wow you and Cap are perfect for each other."

"Tony."

"What is with that by the way? Are you hot for him or something?"

"Maybe I am why does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't, I just think it's interesting. I mean the guy could technically be your father."

"And I'm guessing, half the girls you dated, you might have actually been their father!" She snapped back as Tony scowled.

"As far as me and Steve are concerned, don't worry about it okay. I'm a big girl, I can make my own choices." She clarified as Tony scowled once more, never liked being told what to do.

"Back to the point, yes I can read minds but I don't. I learned to control it so I can tune people out. But don't tempt me Tony."

"So is that all the side effects…or…is there like a She-hulk?" He asked as she shook her head with a chuckle.

"No she-hulk. At least not from me." She clarified as he nodded, trying to process everything.

"So no She-Hulk, can read minds and toss shit around with it, shoots little…lightening bolts from your fingers. So why didn't you ever tell me?" He asked as she sighed.

"Why didn't you ever tell me you were kidnapped?" She asked quickly as he shrugged.

"Figured you knew. Everyone did."

"Well I'm not everyone Tony. I'm your sister."

"Whom I haven't exactly spoken to in 15 years. Not something I can just call up and say "hey sis, how you doing, got kidnapped for a little bit. Shrapnel is making its way to my heart but don't worry I have an arc reactor imbedded in my chest that keeps it from getting there. Hope you're doing good, any explosions lately?" He stated sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"God Tony, you think life is just some big joke."

"Well…all work and no play…"

"C'mon Tony I'm trying to be real here."

"Well stop all right. Ya know what you're the one who left _me_ okay. 15 years ago you took off and left, you don't have any right to be real with me. You don't know me anymore, you don't know what I've been through."

"You're right I did leave, but you made it clear you never wanted me around to begin with, so why should I have stayed?"

"Well I don't want you around now, and yet here you are!" He argued as she scoffed at his attitude.

"And to think I really was beginning to believe you had changed Tony. Huh…guess I was wrong, cause the only thing that's changed about you is your age, you're still the same arrogant little shit I left behind." She stated turning to walk away.

"Surprise, surprise Stella you're leaving! That's the sister I know!" He yelled to her retreating back as she hurried away from Tony.

Feeling the tears in her eyes she blinked them back as she rushed down the hall, bumping into a hard chest.

Almost falling backwards she felt a strong, but gentle hand grip her arm to keep her from falling down.

"Sorry." She mumbled not even looking up as she went to move around the person.

"Stella…what's wrong, are you okay?" Steve asked concerned when she looked up at he saw the unshed tears in her eyes.

"Peachy." She scoffed shaking her head as Steve frowned, still not letting go of her arm.

"What happened? Did you and Tony…"

"Tony…God that arrogant little shit." She mumbled as if Steve wasn't even standing there.

"He's so mad at me right now. He's never forgiven me for leaving him. But, I, I had no choice ya know. I mean I did, but, I was young. I was only 22 and suddenly his parent. We barely could stand each other as it was, and now I had to be his authority figure. It just, it wasn't fair. I knew if I didn't leave we would hate each other and now…now he hates me anyways." She cried as the tears fell from her eyes.

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you Stella." Steve began trying to offer her comfort as she sighed.

"He's probably just upset because of Agent Coulson. Those two knew each other for a while I'm guessing. It's always hard to lose someone you care about." Steve whispered remembering Bucky.

Looking up at him Stella smiled before standing on her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck in a gentle hug, which he reciprocated.

"Thanks Steve." She whispered in his ear before kissing his cheek.

"Uh…a-any time." He stumbled blushing at her affection.

"I think I'm gonna go check out the lab, or what's left of it. See if we can't salvage anything from it, maybe locate the Tesseract." She told him as he nodded.

"All right. I'll come find you if we figure anything out." He said as she smiled, and both realized he was still holding her in a tender embrace.

"Uh, sorry." He stuttered dropping his hands as she chuckled at how adorable he was.

"Thanks again." She said with a quick nod before walking down the hall back to the lab with Steve letting out a deep shaky breath.

Stella Stark would be the death of him.

"_Focus Steve_." He reminded himself as he headed into the room where Tony was.

Seeing Tony staring at the red stain Steve knew this was probably hard for him and it might help if he talked about it a little bit.

"Was he married?" Steve asked walking into the room as Tony turned to look at him, not even a little surprised it was Steve.

"No. There was a uh- cellist, I think."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." Steve replied honestly thinking about the few encounters he'd had with him in that short amount of time.

"He was an idiot." Tony stated simply as Steve frowned walking towards him.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve stated as Tony shook his head.

"Right. How did that work for him?"

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked shocked at how hard Tony was taking it.

"WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS!"Tony yelled overcome with anger before he could even stop himself.

Sighing he got himself back under control before turning to look at Steve.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's get the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list-" Steve began as Tony looked down at the blood stain left once more, putting the puzzle pieces together.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point."

"That _is_ the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but- he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is- this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." Tony began pausing as soon as he realized where Loki was.

"Son of-a-bitch." Tony mumbled suddenly walking towards the door to get his suit.

"What?"

"I know where he is. He's at the Stark Tower. Gather the team." Tony commanded Steve before rushing towards the deck to put his suit on.

"And by the way Cap, you and I are gonna share some words. Until then…stay away from my sister." He ordered as Steve sighed before Tony headed off.


	10. The Battle Begins

Walking into the lab, Steve couldn't believe the charred remains as Stella tried to pick through them in hopes of being able to recover anything.

"Stella, Tony's figured out where the Tesseract is. We're going after it." Steve informed her as she looked up at him.

"Where is it?" She asked walking to him before they walked out of the lab.

"It's at the Stark Tower." Steve told her as Stella began to put the puzzle pieces together.

"He's using Tony's arc reactor to energize the Tesseract." She whispered as a light bulb went off in her head.

"We better hurry…" She began before Steve grabbed her hand gently.

"Stella, what we're about to do, you don't have to…"

"I'm going to help. You're gonna need my powers too." She told him as he locked his jaw, sighing because he knew she was right but he didn't want her to be in danger.

"I'm guessing you have the Stubborn Stark gene in you?" He asked as she smirked.

"Who do you think Tony learned it from?" She teased as he shook his head, but cracked a small smile.

"Stick close to me then." He began, looking into her eyes, so she knew he meant what he was about to say.

"I promise I'll keep you safe." He whispered, cupping her cheek gently, as she blushed at the sincerity in his eyes.

"I know." She whispered back as he held her gaze, the never ceasing tension between the two of them increasing.

_"Cap, getting my suit then I'll meet you at the tower."_ Tony's voice said over his earpiece, breaking the moment between the two of them.

"Right. On our way." Steve replied, before dropping his hand from Stella's cheek and clearing his throat to get back into control.

"I'm gonna get the rest of my uniform. You grab Agent Romanoff, she's in sick bay. Then we'll meet in the hangar." He told her as she nodded.

"Right." She responded before they turned and headed in different directions.

Running towards sick bay Stella felt her hands pulsating and her adrenaline rushing.

She had never been in battle before, was she being stupid to think she could really handle it?

Opening the door to sick bay, Stella watched as Natasha stood up, obviously shocked to see Stella standing there.

"Doc?" She asked wondering why Stella was in such a hurry.

"It's time to go. Steve is going to meet us at the hangar." She told Natasha whom nodded not one to question Steve.

"Can you fly one of the jets?" Stella asked as the bathroom door opened and a man walked out wiping his hands off.

"I can." He told Stella who looked to Natasha not sure if this guy was okay or not.

Stella was pretty sure she had seen him leading the attack on the Helicarrier.

Noticing Stella's confusion, Natasha nodded her approval to let Stella know that he was okay.

"Great, we better go then. Steve's waiting." Stella informed them as they nodded in agreement.

"Let me get my gear." He told the girls as Natasha turned to look at Stella.

"We better suit you up too. Can't have you avenging Coulson in a skirt." Natasha added as Stella chuckled her agreement.

"C'mon. We'll grab one of mine." Natasha said as they left Clint to suit up while Stella followed Natasha.

"Who was that?" Stella asked nodding back towards where they had left the man.

"That's Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. A trained assassin and amazing archer."

"Archer?" Stella asked skeptically as Natasha smiled.

"You'll see." She said as they went into a room and Natasha opened the door grabbing a black jumpsuit and tossing it at her.

"Here, get dressed quickly. I'll meet you outside." She told Stella before leaving the room so Stella could get changed.

Pulling the black catsuit on, it clung to her body tightly and left little to the imagination, but she was surprised at how comfortable it was, and how easily it moved almost like a second skin.

She didn't feel restricted at all, and actually felt a little protected not having her arms and legs exposed.

She then pulled on the boots Natasha had left for her as well, before whipping her hair into a tight ponytail to keep it out of her face.

"Not bad Doc." Natasha complimented as Stella walked out of the room a few moments later.

"Thanks. We ready?" She asked noticing Natasha had armored up with her guns and a few other goodies.

"Let's do this." Natasha replied as they went back the way they came grabbing Clint along the way before meeting Steve at the hangar.

Stella couldn't help but smile in awe seeing him in his full Captain America uniform, shield and all.

There was something majestic about seeing it in person as opposed to the cards and photographs her dad had showed her.

Of course this one was completely updated and seem to be a lot tighter…not that Stella minded.

Steve turned to face them as they walked in and his mouth dropped when he saw the skin tight number Stella was wearing.

It clung to her perfect curves like a glove to a hand and her jade eyes seemed to pop in all the black.

"Stella you look, umm…wow." He stuttered as she blushed at the obvious attraction in his eyes.

"Ditto." She responded with a wink as Clint and Natasha shared a look of annoyance before they all turned to head down to a jet.

Picking the one with the quickest exit out of the hangar they walked on board just to have the pilot turn and object to seeing them standing there.

"Hey you don't have authorization…" "Son, just don't." Steve interrupted and stopped the kid silent.

"Yes sir." The kid mumbled standing up from his spot as Natasha and Clint shooed him out and took their places in the pilot and co-pilot seat.

Tony had taken off a little bit ahead of the jet and went strait to the tower to see what the situation looked like, plus he knew his suit had been badly damaged from his stint as a ragdoll in the engine rotors so he had to change it.

"Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining" JARVIS spoke to Tony as he approached the Stark Tower.

From his spot in the sky Tony could see Erik Selvig on the roof working with the Tesseract.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." Tony commanded as Erik looked up at him with eyes full of wonder and a blue color that was not natural.

"It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." Selvig said with a crazy disillusioned tone in his voice as Tony rolled his eyes.

"Okay." He replied firing at the contraption around the device.

When the blast got too close, the Tesseract defended itself from it, releasing a barrier and sending the energy outward knocking Selvig and Tony back.

"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." JARVIS informed Tony as Tony nodded.

"Yea I got that." He responded looking down to see Loki waiting on the balcony outside of his Penthouse.

"New Plan." Tony told JARVIS as he moved to land on the Penthouse platform he had specifically designed for the suit.

"Sir, the Mark Seven is not ready for deployment." JARVIS told him as Tony struggled to land, his suit loosing power.

"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock." Tony ordered, landing on the dock as the mechanics worked to deconstruct the suit, while Tony walked into the house.

Man did he love Technology.

Watching Tony's entrance Loki decided to follow him into the Penthouse as well to see what Tony was up to.

Loki eyed Tony as Tony moved to his bar, never really taking his eyes of Loki either.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity, like you sister tried." Loki asked in a mocking tone as Tony forced a scoff to hide the fact that he wanted to hurt the demi-God for upsetting his sister the way he had.

"My sister was always the better diplomat than me. No actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki teased, watching as Tony shrugged and played it cool.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. Plus, you've got the uh- blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Tony asked wanting any excuse to get behind the bar and put his plan into motion.

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no- threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one." Tony said grabbing a bottle of scotch to continue the illusion.

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asked chiding Tony.

"The Avengers."

"It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing." Tony informed taking a sip of his scotch and shrugging it off as if he was just telling Loki the weather, only to have Loki respond with a chuckle.

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God…" Tony began as Loki hissed and turned to look at out the window while Tony used that as a chance to slip his bracelets on.

"A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, my big sister with her new scary brain powers and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan." Loki added as Tony began to walk to the center of the Penthouse where Loki stood now that he had both bracelets on.

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony informed as Loki simply smirked at him.

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk." Tony corrected as Loki chuckled.

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."

"Yeah- you're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. 'Cause if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned sure we'll avenge it." Tony stated strongly to make sure he got his point across.

Loki continued his smirk and walked toward Tony with his scepter pointed out at him.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" He asked sardonically, placing the tip of the scepter over Tony's heart to take control of him like he had Selvig and Barton.

Tensing nervously, Tony then smirked when it clinked against the metal of the arc reactor unable to reach his heart.

"This usually works." Loki mumbled confused as he tried again, only to be met with another metal to metal clink.

"Well, performance issues. You know? 1 in 5." Tony teased, only to have Loki grab him by the throat and throw him across room.

"JARVIS, anytime now!" Tony spoke as Loki grabbed him again.

"You will all fall before me." Loki declared.

"JARVIS. Deploy." Tony commanded as Loki sent Tony through the window and plummeting towards the earth.

"DEPLOY!" Tony yelled as he hurtled to the ground.

Finally the suit shot out from the Penthouse and locking onto the bracelets it unfolded around Tony catching him seconds before he smashed into the ground.

Flying back up to the window Tony stopped in front of Loki to make sure he got his attention.

"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil!" Tony declared before firing his repulsor blast at Loki and knocking him back.


	11. They are a Team

At that moment, Tony noticed the Tesseract shoot a giant blue light into the sky and a portal open up as hundreds of the Chitauri army began to fly through the portal.

"Right! Army." Tony muttered speeding up towards the incoming army and shooting at them while trying to avoid the exploding debris.

As the quinjet flew into the city, Stella's eyes widened at the sight before her and she felt her stomach knot.

Steve studied the sight in front of them trying to figure out the best way to approach it, before turning to look at Stella to see how she was doing.

He could see the fear in her eyes and wished he could offer her some form of comfort.

"Stella…" he began as she shook her head.

"I'm doing this." She claimed, more for herself than for him drawing strength from Thor's earlier compliment of her.

_"You have the heart of an Asguardian Warrior."_ She heard in her head as she mentally clung to the words, wishing she actually believed them.

"Stark, we're on your three headed north east." Natasha announced to Tony as they flew into view of Stark Tower.

"What the hell took so long, did you stop for drive-thru. Swing down Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you." Tony ordered, flying fast and leading a troop of Chitauri towards the jet where Clint and Natasha unleashed machine gun fire on them.

"Sir, we have more incoming." JARVIS told Tony who sighed.

This was gonna be a long battle, he just hoped his suit would last.

"Fine. Let's keep them occupied." He told JARVIS flying away from the Jet and turning to blast the Chitauri.

Inside the quinjet Clint and Natasha worked on taking down as many as they could as they flew past Stark Tower to see Thor had arrived and was battling with Loki.

"Nat!" Clint announced as Natasha nodded having spotted him as well.

"I see 'em!" She responded firing the guns towards Loki, who turned and used his Staff to shoot the wing of the quinjet causing it to spin out of control, grazing buildings and spinning towards the ground fast.

Closing her eyes Stella mentally grabbed hold of the jet, steading it from spinning as Natasha and Clint tried to figure out what was going on.

"What the hell?" Clint asked as he felt the jet right itself before landing smoothly.

Standing up from their seats, Natasha and Clint removed their headsets, as Stella opened her eyes and Steve smiled at her display of power.

"Impressive." He added as she smiled and gave a shrug, while Natasha opened the hatch for them.

Grabbing their gear they exited the jet shocked at the damage already done to the city around them.

Cars were over turned, cement bridges were crumbling and fires burned all around them.

_"What have I gotten myself into?_" Stella thought following the three of them out of the jet towards the battle.

"We gotta get back up there." Steve announced as the four of them ran out onto an overpass and looked up at Stark Tower where the source of the blue light was coming from.

Suddenly all of them froze when they spotted a giant metal creature flying through the portal as Chitauri jumped off it in droves climbing onto buildings and attacking civilians.

"What the hello?" Clint asked to no one in particular as Stella and Natasha shared a look of worry and fear.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked Tony through their earpieces.

"Seeing. Still working on believing...Where's Banner? Has he shown upyet?" Tony asked firing off some more of his guns.

"Bruce is still missing." Stella announced as Tony felt his eyes widen when his sister's voice came in over the intercom.

"What the hell is she doing here Cap?" Tony snapped wondering why the hell Steve hadn't listened to him when he said to stay away.

This is exactly what he had wanted to avoid.

"Don't snap at him Tony. Steve had no choice in the matter." Stella stated over her earpiece to make sure Tony understood.

He wasn't really surprised she was there and he was definitly not happy about it. Stella had no real battle training, other than maybe fencing lessons from their child hood.

Why the hell would she come?

_"Cause she's a Stark, why wouldn't she come?"_ He thought to himself before letting out a sigh.

"Fine. Just keep me posted." He ordered flying up to the giant mechanical beast to see the best way to take the beast on.

"JARVIS, find me a soft spot." He ordered as the beast tore through buildings and roared loudly.

The ground four worked at keeping back the Chitauri from civilians and tried to figure out a plan.

"We've got civilians trapped." Clint announced as he, Natasha and Stella crouched behind an overturned taxicab.

"There fish in a barrel down there." Steve added as he looked over his shoulder down to where the people in the street were being attacked by the flying Chitauri.

Jumping up quickly, Natasha stood and fired both her guns at an incoming group of Chitauri.

"We got this. It's good. Go!" She yelled as Steve turned to look at where the civilians were and knew he had to help them.

"You think you can hold them off?" He asked as she nodded and Clint stood up as well.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." He insisted grabbing an arrow and shooting it, hitting one of the aliens in the head and electrifying it.

Suddenly the arrow split off into more arrows and killed three Chitauri aliens electrifying all of them as well.

Turning to look at Stella she nodded to him to go help the civilians.

"Don't worry about me I'll be fine! Go!" She told him as he nodded before jumping off the overpass and rolling onto a bus into the street.

Turning to face the incoming Chitauri, Stella closed her eyes mentally grabbing the Chitauri vehicles before slamming them into each other as they exploded.

When the debris began to rain down on them, Stella placed a giant shielded bubble over the three of them till the debris stopped.

"Wait…how did you…" Natasha stuttered in shock as Stella let out a slight chuckle.

"You have your skills…" Stella began nodding to Natasha's guns and weaponry.

"And I have mine." Stella finished, lifting her hands to blast Chitauri with the pulsating electricity in her hands.

"ALL RIGHT!" Clint hollered excitedly as they three of them continued to fight.

Running through the street towards a group of police cars Steve jumped down in front of them after dodging and jumping over cars to reach them.

"You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they can be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basement or through the subway, you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th." Steve ordered gesturing the directions he needed as the cop stared at him.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The Policeman asked incredulously when suddenly two Chitauri warriors attacked Steve and he fought them off quickly and easily before turning to look back at the cops.

Realizing what he had just witnessed the Police Sergeant reacted quickly,

"I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets." He ordered before getting on the radio. "We're gonna set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th street." He commanded as Steve smiled and headed back to battle.

Down below, Clint, Natasha and Stella were fighting the grounded Chitauri to the best of their abilities.

Pulling out an arrow, Clint stabbed the alien with it before shooting it off into another one as Stella used her skills to destroy two more, feeling her powers strengthen the more she used them.

After defeating her Chitauri, Natasha noticed another going towards Stella, who was seemingly unaware.

Sliding under the one attacking her, Natasha dodged its attempt to cut her head off and ripped the Chitauri's weapon out of it's hand before jumping to her feet and firing the weapon into the one near Stella then stabbed the weapon into the one trying to get her.

"Thanks." Stella responded stunned at how incredible that was, before turning to see Clint shoot an arrow behind his back without looking and hit the flying Chitauri dead on.

The three of them continued to battle when Clint was then attacked from behind and kicked through the window of a cab.

Stella mentally grabbed the Chitauri and slammed it into the ground while Natasha fired the weapon at it once more.

The three of them were quickly becoming overwhelmed but continued fighting with all their might.

Blasting three away from her, four more dropped down in front of Stella to battle when all of a sudden Steve rejoined them knocking them out of the way when he threw his shield like a boomerang.

"You okay?" He asked as she nodded, grateful he was back.

Just then Thor dropped down killing dozens of Chitauri with a bolt of lightening.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked while the other three were given a momentary break thanks to Thor.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable."

"Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys first." Tony chimed in over the earpiece.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked looking around at the others.

"As a team." Steve stated firmly.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor insisted as Clint readied some arrows.

"Oh yeah! Get in line." He added as Steve stepped in.

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to..."

Steve soon stopped when they 5 of them heard the sound of a motorbike headed towards them, and to their disbelief Bruce was the one driving it.

Walking towards them, Bruce climbed off it and Stella couldn't help the relief that washed over her.

"So, this all seems horrible." He joked as Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.

"I've seen worse." She added as Bruce looked at her apologetically.

"Sorry." He added as Natasha shook her head.

"No, we could- use a little worse." She finished as he chuckled.

"Stark, we got him." Steve told Tony over their earpiece.

"Banner_?"_ Tony asked, excited.

"Just like you said." Steve added, not wanting to admit that Tony was right, but glad he was.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Tony told them all before flying around a corner towards the group, followed very closely by the giant beast.

"I-I don't see how that's a party." Natasha stumbled over her sentence in shock as Tony drew the creature low while Bruce began to walk towards the beast.

"Doctor Banner now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Steve added as Bruce turned to look at them.

"That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry." He told before transforming into the Hulk quickly as his shirt shredded and he seemed to grow about nine feet tall.

Stella's eyes widened at the giant green beast in front of them punching the mechanical beast and making a gaping hole in the armor as if it was a simple as swatting a regular house fly.

"Hold On!" Tony yelled, firing a missile into the hole causing it to explode.

Throwing her hands up, Stella created the bubble shield around the 5 of them as the explosion passed over them and Thor turned to look at her with wide eyes, apparently she really did have the heart of an Asgaurdian warrior...and some of the powers.

Dropping the shield once the fire passed over them, Tony hovered down by them as the Hulk came back towards them and the seven of them stood together, truly a team.

"Guys?" Natasha asked wanting a plan, and quickly.

"Call it, Captain." Tony said handing the reigns over to Steve willingly, and lifting a small smile from Stella.

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash." He ordered as Clint turned to look at Tony.

"Wanna give me a lift?" He asked as Tony smiled under his helmet.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." He teased grabbing hold of Clint and flying him to the top of the building before dropping him and flying off to follow his orders.

"Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow 'em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up." Steve continued to order as Thor swung his hammer creating a tunnel to fly off in.

"Stella, you, me and Natasha will stay here and keep fighting from the ground." He told the girls as they both nodded, before Steve turned to look at Hulk.

"And Hulk!" Steve exclaimed to get his attention.

"Smash." Steve ordered as Hulk grinned then leaped off, taking out dozens of warriors on the sides of the buildings, grabbing them, smashing them and throwing them around like ragdolls.

Looking up as Thor landed on the Chrysler building the three of them watched as he summoned lightening before shooting it at the portal and taking out more Chitauri and another Mechanical beast.

For a moment they felt like they might win this battle after all.


	12. This Place is About to Blow

Just as Thor took out the dozens with his lightening, hundreds more poured out of the portal, much to the despair of the group.

"Steve, I should go to the portal. I'm a scientist not a warrior. We need to figure out how to shut that thing down!" Stella yelled, turning to look at Natasha who agreed.

"Cap, she's right, none of this is gonna mean a damn if we don't close it." Natasha added as Steve sighed.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." He said not sure what they could do, while Natasha and Stella shared a look, both thinking the same thing.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." Stella added as Natasha agreed and Steve figured out what they meant.

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride." He told them as Natasha glanced up and saw a Chitauri fly past them.

"I got a ride. Could use a boost though. I'll meet you up there Doc." Natasha announced making her way to the other side of the overpass.

"You sure about this?" Steve asked, reading his shield for her to jump off of.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun!" She mumbled before running at Steve, jumping off his shield for a boost, Stella then used her powers to give Natasha added leverage and land right behind the driver before speeding out of their view as Steve looked at Stella.

"No way in hell." She told him as he chuckled just as Tony hovered near them to help take out some of the Chitauri that had begun to surround them.

Devising a plan on the spot, Steve raised his shield and used it to reflect Tony's repulsor blast taking out a fleet of Chitauri before Tony flew off again.

"I need to get up there and help Natasha." Stella said out loud helping Steve fight off some more of the ground warriors.

Just then Tony shot past them once more, taking out some ground Chitauri with a few tiny missiles, and giving Stella an idea.

"Tony I need a ride to the top. Natasha and I are gonna try and stop the portal." Stella commanded over the earpiece before turning to look at Steve.

"Will you be okay?" She asked he nodded, touched by her concern.

"Yes. Be careful Stella." He added as she nodded locking eyes with him.

Deciding to seize the moment cause she realized there might not be another, she grabbed Steve and pulled him in for a heart stopping, breath stealing, toe-curling kiss.

It may have only lasted a second but Steve could still feel it after Stella pulled away and Tony landed.

"Tony take me to the top!" She ordered looking back at Steve who had a goofy smile plastered on his face, and more determination than ever to win the battle.

"Yes ma'am." Tony responded wrapping his arm around her waist as Steve watched the two of them fly off.

"What the hell was that? A kiss in the middle of battle Stella. Who knew you were such a romantic." He teased her as she rolled her eyes, before Tony carefully dropped her on the roof where Natasha had just landed.

"Good luck Stell." Tony added before flying off as Stella gave a salute and turned to help Natasha who was talking to Dr. Selvig.

"The scepter." Dr. Selvig said, having been knocked out of his Loki's mind control.

"Doctor." Natasha began, kneeling beside him as he shook his head leaning over the edge of the roof.

"Loki's scepter, the energy- the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself." He informed the two as Stella realized what he was saying.

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." Natasha spoked trying to sooth him, worried the older man may be thinking of jumping.

"Well, actually I think I did…" He began as Stella looked down to see where the staff was.

"You built a safety to cut the power?" She asked as Natasha looked down to the scepter.

"Loki's Scepter."

"It may be able to close the portal." Selvig added as Natasha smiled.

"And I'm looking right at it." He informed out loud before turning to look at Stella and Natasha.

"Can you get me down there?" Natasha asked as Stella nodded.

Closing her eyes she grabbed Natasha with her mind and lifted her up as Natasha's eyes widened at the weird feeling it gave her.

Lowering her to the platform below them Natasha grabbed the scepter quickly hoping Loki wasn't around anywhere.

"I've got it Stella." She announced as Stella concentrated once more and lifted Natasha back up to the platform, while Selvig's eyes widened at the display before him.

Catching a glimpse of Natasha being lowered to the scepter Tony smiled realizing they might be winning, before being knocked down to the ground by some flying Chitauri.

"Stark, you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city." Fury's voice suddenly said over Tony's earpiece as Tony was knocked around on the ground.

"How Long?" Tony asked trying to fight back but feeling a little dizzy from the different directions he was being tossed in.

"Three minutes. Max. Payload can wipe out mid-town." Fury told Tony as Tony got himself to his feet.

"JARVIS, put everything we got into the thrusters." Tony commanded wanting to catch the missile.

"I just did." JARVIS responded as Tony blasted towards the missile.

On the roof Selvig was setting up his equipment while Stella fought off Chitauri to protect Natasha.

"Right at the crown!" He pointed as Natasha began pushing the spear through the barrier and sparks shot off.

Putting a protective bubble around Natasha till the sparks stopped Natasha nodded her thanks to Stella before telling everyone she could close the portal.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!" She yelled through their earpieces.

"DO IT!" Steve yelled back.

"No, wait!" Tony interjected, having devised a plan.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve argued not sure what Tony's play was.

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute."

"And I know just where to put it." Tony finished grabbing the missile to redirect it towards the portal and Stella felt her heart drop in her stomach.


	13. Full of Pride and Love

**AN: xxTara: Your reviews are so sweet and encouraging, thank you so much! Ali: Is there such thing as Good Cheesy? lol! Torilovesu thanks for the review! Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, and just reading. I am glad people are enjoying it. **

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve informed Tony as Stella turned to look up towards the portal realizing what it would really mean.

"TONY! TONY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Stella yelled into the earpiece, fear and panic washing over her.

"Making the sacrifice play." He whispered as the missile moved towards the portal with Tony holding on tightly.

"Tony, I'm sorry okay. I'm sorry I said what I said. You, you don't have to do this!" She begged as the others heard the desperation in Stella's voice over their earpieces and all felt their heart's break.

"Yea I do Stell." He whispered, quiet for a moment.

"Think dad would be proud?" He asked in a teasing tone, but he was really trying not to think about what he was doing.

Pushing it to the portal Stella shook her head in disbelief, tears welling in her eyes as she watched him in the sky.

"Screw him Tony. Don't do this for him!" She cried, not wanting to lose her brother because of their dead father's insistent pushing.

"Stell…"

"I LOVE YOU ANTHONY STARK! I LOVE YOU OKAY! I AM PROUD OF YOU! SCREW DAD TONY OK! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY I WASN'T THERE WHEN I SHOULD'VE BEEN! AND I'M SORRY I WAS SUCH A BITCH BUT I AM SO PROUD OF YOU! EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE AND ACCOMPLISHED! I AM SO PROUD! I LOVE YOU ANTHONY!" She yelled as they saw him flying up inside the Portal with the missile on his back.

"I love you too." He whispered to her before they lost connection.

"TONY! TONY!" She screamed into the earpiece when she was met with nothing but static.

Tony had tears in his eyes as his sister's words echoed through his head and he held them close to his heart.

"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?" JARVIS asked as Tony flew higher with the missile.

"Might as well." He muttered as JARVIS tried to reach Pepper.

Tony let the tears fall freely as he pushed it towards the mother ship and his suit began to loose power, blinking several times before the lights went out.

Tony the watched as the missile hit the Chitauri mother ship and explode quickly.

Feeling paralyzed he closed his eyes and knew there was nothing he could do at this point but hope he'd fall through before they closed portal.

On the roof, Stella felt the tears stream down her face as she watched, waiting for Tony to come flying through the opening.

"Come on, Stark." Natasha whispered as Stella pleaded to God, to Odin, to anyone who could save her brother.

"Please Tony, please baby brother don't leave me." She whispered when they began to see the fire creeping it's way towards the portal.

"Close it." Steve whispered, making the hard call for Natasha.

Plunging the scepter into the heart of the device it began to close in on it's self as the hole got smaller and smaller, but then Stella saw his suit fall through it seconds before it closed.

"Son of a gun!" Steve announced as Stella's eyes widened.

"TONY!" She yelled watching as he continued to plummet.

"He's not slowing down." Thor noticed as Stella felt her heart race and she jumped over the side of the building.

"STARK!" Natasha yelled after her as Stella began to fall down to the ground fast.

Using her powers she placed a bubble below her feet to slow herself down and watched as out of no where Hulk grabbed Tony from the air and slid down the side of a building crashing to the ground in front of Thor and Steve.

Tossing Tony off of him, the Hulk, Thor and Steve looked on in silence when he didn't move.

Ripping off his faceplate, Thor turned to Captain America not sure what to do next.

Tony's eyes were closed as he laid motionless.

Dropping to his knees, Steve listened for his breathing and moved to check his heartbeat, before noticing that the arc reactor wasn't glowing.

Hearing the sound of hard footsteps running towards them, Steve looked over his shoulder and saw Stella running towards them.

"Stella!" Steve announced standing as Thor turned to catch her before she could see Tony.

"NO!" She screamed as Thor held her tightly.

"Lady Stella you do not want..." Thor began only to be cut off by Stella's screaming.

"NO! TONY! PLEASE! PLEASE TONY DON'T LEAVE ME!" She cried struggling in Thor's strong arms to reach him.

"LET ME SEE HIM! LET ME SEE MY BROTHER! PLEASE!" She screamed as Steve nodded to Thor to let her go.

Running over to Tony as soon as Thor released her she dropped to her knees and stared at her lifeless brother.

The tears rained from her eyes as she looked down at him shocked and panicked.

Her hands hovered over his face and suit, afraid to touch him but trying to see if there was anything she could do.

"Oh God. Oh god no. Please, please Tony. Please don't leave me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the things I said. I'm sorry baby brother. Please…" She cried placing her hand over the dull arc reactor as she looked down at his face and began to remember all the good times she'd had with him.

The first time she had ever held him, his first steps, the way he said her name for the first time, the imaginary games they had played, the models that had built, and even some of the good times when they got older.

"Stella…" Steve began as she shook her head.

"No! No! Anthony, Anthony I know you can hear me. I'm sorry, I love you. I love you so much! So much Anthony, please…please don't leave me." She cried as Steve placed his hand on her back.

"I'm sorry Stella." He whispered as the dam broke and Stella began to sob.

"No. No please." She gasped as Steve pulled her into his arms, holding her closer as his heart broke for her.

Rubbing her back gently, he tried to offer any form of comfort he could as she sobbed, clinging to Steve.

"I'm sorry." He whispered to her as Hulk turned to look at the others.

Having had enough of this nonsense, he let out a loud roar and beat his chest.

Gasping, Tony suddenly opened his eyes as Stella turned to look and see him still very much alive.

"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?" He asked confused as Stella threw her arms around Tony best she could, hugging him tightly.

"Stell?" Tony asked shocked at his sister's affection as Steve smiled with relief.

"Don't you ever fucking leave me like that!" She ordered as Tony moved to put his hand on her back, shocked at her sentiment.

"Okay." He replied, turning to look at Steve who just grinned.

"We won." Steve simply said as Tony let loose a giant sigh of relief.

"Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." Tony confessed as Stella sat up, laughing as she wiped her eyes and stared down at Tony with eyes full of joy.

"We're not finished yet." Thor informed nodding towards the building as Tony sighed, just wanting the day to be over.

"And then shawarma after?" He asked as Steve and Thor both helped Tony up.

"We need to get back to the top and deal with some unfinished business." Thor answered as Stella stood up as well.

"I've got us." She whispered closing her eyes as she put forth what looked like a flat bubble.

"Step on it." She ordered as Steve, helped Tony over to it, and stepped on it, while Thor swung his hammer rapidly and moved to fly up and the Hulk jumped bouncing off buildings to reach the Stark Tower.

Levitating the three of them to the top, Tony looked around as Steve smiled.

"Girls got skills." Tony joked as she smiled, so happy to hear his voice, before placing them on the platform of Stark Towers where Natasha was already waiting with Thor and Clint who had been picked up along the way.


	14. Team Farewells

When they walked into penthouse they saw Loki lying in a hole in the floor and they all knew Hulk had put him there.

As he began to crawl out of it, Clint pulled his arrow out and pointed it at his eye socket just like he'd wanted to, before Loki turned to look at all of them.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." Loki spoke, as Thor stepped towards him and hauled Loki to his feet with an objective groan from Loki.

"You will return to Asguard with me." Thor stated as Loki put his hands up in surrender, knowing he had lost, for the moment.

"I will prepare transport back to Asguard. Where you will seek justice for your crimes, brother." Thor informed Loki who just rolled his eyes.

"Oh Goodie." He mumbled before Thor turned to look at the others.

"It might take some time but I will bring Loki and I to a place on earth that will allows us to convene with the Allfather. We will meet at the new dawn." Thor told the others as they all just nodded their agreement, too tired to argue.

Thor then proceeded to swing his hammer and take him and Loki out of the building while the others watched him leave, before turning to face each other.

Now that all the excitement had died down, Bruce felt himself transforming back to Bruce out of the Hulk and before he could grab a blanket, he was transformed; and standing naked in the middle of the living room.

Out of respect the girls and Steve quickly averted their eyes and Tony fought back on a laugh while Bruce attempted to cover up.

"Sorry." He mumbled covering himself once Clint tossed a blanket from the couch over to him.

In that moment, something seemed to snap in all of them and they all began to crack up hysterically.

It became a sense of release then, realizing what they had all been through and that they had all survived it.

Once the laughter died down, Tony sent Bruce to his room to get some clothes while JARVIS pulled Tony's badly damaged suit off his body.

"We should probably report back to SHIELD." Natasha told Clint who nodded his agreement just as Dr. Selvig walked in with a briefcase.

"I think that this should go with Thor back to Asguard, it's nothing but trouble here on earth." He told the others, as they realized he had the Tesseract in the suitcase.

"Agreed." They all said simultaneously as Selvig chuckled at their looks of exasperation.

"Right then, I will just leave this here." He mumbled, handing the briefcase to Tony who turned to look at the others for objection.

"I think it will be safe here." Steve stated as Clint and Natasha nodded their agreement too tired to care.

"That'll be fun to explain to SHIELD." Clint muttered when suddenly they heard a Jet flying outside the penthouse.

The hatch opened and out walked Fury with a smirk on his face.

"I was thinking some of you may need a ride." He assumed walking in from the balcony into the penthouse as Natasha, Clint and Dr. Selvig agreed, walking towards the Jet while Fury walked towards the other three.

"Cap we've also arranged a ride to take you back to your apartment. It's waiting downstairs." He told Steve, whom nodded and turned to look at Stella knowing they had unfinished business to discuss.

"Thank you Director Fury." He stated with a nod, before Directory Fury turned to look at Stella and Bruce.

"Dr. Banner and Dr. Stark we're working on getting you a ride back to your previous locations, but given that the airspace is sort of on lock down right now, probably won't happen till tomorrow, so we can arrange for you two…"

"They can stay here. I've got room." Tony interjected as Stella turned to look at him slightly shocked and Bruce nodded his thanks.

"Thank you Tony. Are you sure, you uh…you don't mind given…?" Bruce asked alluding to the Hulk as Tony shook his head.

"Look at the place, not much Hulk could really do that would make it any worse. I've got a couple of guest rooms. You're both welcome to stay." Tony added looking at Stella as she smiled.

"Thanks Tony. Yea, I'll just stay here for tonight." She told Fury as he nodded.

"Right. Well. Cap you're ride is downstairs when you're ready." Fury informed once more as Steve turned to look at Stella who offered him a small, bashful smile.

"Thank you sir." Steve responded before turning to look back at Director Fury who nodded before looking at all of them.

"You did good work today…all of you. Coulson would be proud." He stated honestly as they all turned to look at each other with a sad smile on their faces.

When they had worked together they had saved the world, too bad it had taken the death of a respected man like Phil Coulson for them to see that they could work together.

With that statement Fury turned and headed back to the Jet where Dr. Selvig, Natasha and Clint were waiting.

After Fury, Dr. Selvig, Clint and Natasha all climbed aboard the SHIELD jet and left, Stella, Tony, Steve and Bruce stood in the room silently, none of them sure what to say.

Stella and Steve were in a heated stare and Tony decided for once not to be an asshole and thought he would give them a chance to talk.

"Right, well Dr. Banner, let me show you to a room." Tony said turning to Bruce so that Steve and Stella could have some privacy and Stella mouthed a grateful thank you.

Once the boys left the room the silence fell and Stella began to revel in her embarrassment from her previous actions in the battlefield.

"I umm, I feel like I should apologize for my forwardness earlier with the uh…" She trailed off as Steve blushed lightly but grinned.

"You have nothing to be sorry for…"

"I thought I might not see you again and so…I don't know." She trailed off chuckling nervously, before turning to look up at him.

"There's something special about you Steve. And I'm not just talking about the Serum. I feel like I've known you forever but I've only known you for, goodness, a couple of days really. But, you...you've been talked about my whole life, I don't know how to explain it. I just feel so comfortable around you, and so safe." She whispered stepping closer to him as he followed suit, encouraging her to continue.

"Not a lot of guys have made me feel that way before and I just knew that in that moment, if something had happened, I just had to go for it I guess." She shrugged chuckling as Steve smiled at her, a real smile.

"I'm glad you did. I'm uh, I'm not the best at interactions, ya know especially male-female interactions. Not a lot of practice I guess." He replied honestly as he looked down at her sheepishly.

Studying her face, even dirty and bruised she still looked beautiful to Steve.

The battle had only enhanced her beauty, if that was possible and it added a silent strength to her smarts that he found very appealing.

"I'd like to uh…practice more though…with you." He stumbled over as Stella smiled, catching his hidden meaning.

"I'd be happy to help you practice." She spoke in a low voice and stepped closer as he licked his dry lips feeling his heart rate speed up and his breathing begin to shallow.

"I should, I should warn you though, that, that there's a lot of, of things I'm not very good at. I'd need extra practice." He muttered as his breath hitched when she moved closer to him, the heat radiating off her body in waves that seemed to wrap around him like a comforting blanket.

Any other guy and she would've guessed it was a line but the sincerity in his eyes and nervousness in his voice made his statement that much sweeter.

"Whatever you need. Practice makes perfect." She whispered, leaning up towards a kiss unable to resist those pouty pale pink lips of his a minute longer.

"…and if you want you can take my private elevator to any of the top 10 and check out the R&D departments." Tony's voice said as Stella and Steve froze, the déjà vu of the moment not lost on either of them.

"You really have impeccable timing Tony." Stella muttered, turning to look at him, as he scowled not sure what she meant.

"I should probably go." Steve supposed as Stella turned back to look at him slightly disappointed that he was leaving.

"Maybe we can practice some time?" She asked, things between her and Steve were far from settled and she wanted to know where it would all go.

"Practice makes perfect." He teased with a wink before turning to head to the elevator, and Stella couldn't help but turn her head to the side as she watched him walk away.

"Perfect..." She whispered biting her lip as Tony cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Uh right." She mumbled as Steve stopped turning to look at Tony and Bruce.

"Dr. Banner, it was an honor to fight along side you, both sides of you." Steve stated stretching his hand out to shake Bruce's hand.

Bruce couldn't help smile nervously but gratefully and reached forward to shake Steve's hand.

"You too Cap." He replied as Steve then turned to look at Tony.

"Mr. Stark." He stated as Tony nodded.

"Cap." He responded, as both remained silent before reaching their hands out.

"We'll talk soon." Tony stated glancing at Stella before looking back to Steve.

"Look forward to it." Steve answered before finishing off the handshake.

"Stella." Steve said turning to face her once more, with a soft smile, and polite farewell nod.

"Bye." She said softly with a slight wave, watching as Steve stepped into the elevator and with a final nod the doors closed and he headed to the ground floor.

"So does he live in New York too?" Stella asked as Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head at her behavior.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. If you're not taking off right away." Tony asked looking at Stella as a different mood fell over the room.

Sensing the need for the siblings to talk Bruce headed towards the hallway.

"I think I'll go to my room and uh, change and clean up." He told the two as Tony nodded and pointed towards the direction they came.

"Bathroom is the second door on the left." He informed Bruce, who nodded his thanks and headed to the room to give the siblings some long awaited and much needed private time.


	15. Sweet Siblings

**AN: I apologize in advanced, this one is a little bit of a longer chapter, but I couldn't split it in half anywhere. Anyways, it's probably one of my favorite chapters I've written and I hope you all like it!**

Once the two of them were alone, Tony headed towards his bar as Stella watched him anxiously, not sure what to say or do.

"So, Stell…listen, I umm, ya know out there was crazy right? I mean with the missile and the aliens and…" Tony began not sure how to start the conversation he wanted to have.

"Tony…I meant what I said to you." She stated, knowing what he wanted to talk about.

He wanted to know if she was sincere, if she really meant what she had said to him out on the battlefield.

"It's okay. I mean the heat of the moment, brother risking his life." He tried to deflect as she shook her head at him.

"I'm not lying Tony. I meant it. I'm very proud of you. And not just because you saved the world…although that does help." She teased as he smirked and grabbed a bottle of scotch.

"Of course." He added, clearing his throat at the emotions brewing.

"You want a drink?" He asked turning away from her to grab another glass, never really good at dealing with emotions in the first place, let alone any of the ones concerning his sister.

"And I meant what I said, when I said I love you." She stated, feeling her stomach knot as she put herself out there with him.

Tony kept his back turned to her afraid she'd see the small tears that had weld up in his eyes.

After all these years, he'd never realized how much he wanted to hear that from her…well he realized he just never wanted to admit it to himself.

He'd idolized his big sister growing up and they had been so close as kids, it had crushed him when she pushed him away the way she had.

To hear her tell him that she loved him and was proud of him…it meant more to him than all the technology in the world.

Taking a sip of his scotch he cleared his throat not wanting her to know how much she had affected him.

"I meant it too." He whispered honestly as she smiled letting out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"I never hated you." He confessed after another moment of silence, before turning to look at her very confused face.

"Excuse me?" She asked bewildered by the randomness of his statement.

"I said…I never hated you. I know you think I did…and I may have told you I did…once or twice…but I didn't Stell. Hate you I mean." He continued, watching for her reaction.

She remained silent, staring at him with those jade green eyes that he hadn't realized how much he'd missed seeing.

She was stunned by his confession to say the least.

In all these years she swore he'd hated her. It was one of the reasons she'd stayed away for so long.

It had crushed her the way the two of them had finished all those years ago, even if a large part of it has been her fault.

She didn't like to think about it but she had really missed her little brother.

Despite the bickering and what not they had had some good times together it just ended so…horribly.

"You had a right to." She finally responded as Tony raised a confused eyebrow.

"Hate me. I was a…I wasn't nice to you. I should've been. But I wasn't. I resented you." She acknowledged to Tony whom simply nodded, not sure how he felt about everything coming to the surface this way.

It wasn't exactly an ideal setting to have a heart to heart, or ideal time…but then again, when was there?

"Everything came so easy to you. I struggled so hard to be smart. And you, you graduate MIT at 15. And dad just, well when he wasn't in the lab he just focused on you it's like I didn't even exist. I hated that. I wanted his attention so badly." She whispered feeling tears in her eyes at the painful memories as Tony gave a wry chuckle.

"I would've gladly given it to you. His attention was not always the best thing Stell. I mean he just…he pushed, and he pushed, always telling me we had to have Iron in our Backbone to be successful. I didn't want to be successful I wanted to be a kid. I was jealous of you, all the time. The way you got to do whatever you wanted. Go to whatever school you wanted, have any career you wanted. It was like, my whole future was planned out for me." He added as Stella sighed and dropped onto what was left of Tony's couch.

"Ya know, when dad told me I was getting a baby brother I was so excited. I thought of all the fun things we could do. Games we could play, things we could build. I always pictured that we'd be this great team."

"We were for a while." Tony supposed walking out from behind the bar with a drink for the both of them.

"Till we let our sibling rivalries get the better of us." Stella added accepting the drink as Tony sat down next to her.

"Tell we let dad get to us." He finished as she chuckled at just how true the statement was.

"Yea…" Stella mumbled not sure what else to say.

"When dad and Maria died, I was so mad cause now I had to give up my life and take care of you."

"And I definitely didn't make it easy."

"No…you didn't. But, I didn't either. I mean, I don't think either of us really stood a chance. We'd both lost our dad, and you had lost your mom."

"You had already lost yours." Tony added as Stella nodded in agreement.

"Which is why I should've been more sympathetic Tony. I should've, I should've been nicer to you. Ya know, instead of mad at you. It wasn't your fault; I wish…I wish it wouldn't have taken me 20 years to realize that. It's like, we were both just trying to figure it all out, and somehow _we_ got lost along the way." She expressed before taking a sip, as Tony nodded, not sure what to say or how to deal with the truth of her sentence.

"I wish it would've been different Tony. For us I mean. So much we could've changed. Ya know, we could've been there for each other instead of pushing each other away." She began, as tears filled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"Tony, I-I can't even tell you how sorry I am that I wasn't there for you after you got kidnapped. I mean, I should've been there. I should've…I'm so sorry." She wept as Tony's own eyes weld up with tears.

"Uh it's fine." He stated standing from the couch as he quickly wiped at his eyes.

"Ya know, I mean, you didn't know…" He trailed off, trying to fight back against the waves of emotions crashing around inside him.

He remembered the day he'd arrived back home after captivity, in his heart he had prayed that when the plane's door opened she would be standing right there with Pepper and Happy, he also remembered the devastation when she wasn't.

The question in the back of his mind lingered and he couldn't resist asking now that he finally had the chance.

"How didn't you know? I mean, it was all over the news. Did you really not know?" He asked turning to look at her as her eyes widened and she stood up from the couch and placed her cup on the table as she walked towards him.

"Honestly Tony. I didn't! It, I guess it happened about the same times as this…" She began holding up her hands, motioning to her powers.

"And, when my experiment failed and everything, the powers started developing I panicked. I was afraid the government would find out and take me in and run tests or something, like those horror stories you hear about. So I just, I made myself disappear. I went completely off the grid, moved to a remote location out in the country in France so that I could figure everything out. I stayed away from the internet, TVs, all of it cause I was so afraid the government would find me. Though I guess SHIELD always knew where I was." She added as Tony nodded, knowing she was telling him the truth.

He'd always remembered how much Stella hated the government and "big brother" and the fact that they always got in the way of projects and experiments. Of course at they time they hadn't realized their dad was working for the government, but that was neither here nor there now.

"Makes sense." He stated quietly as he tried to process everything.

"I promise you though, if I had known I would not have stopped until I found you Anthony. Nothing would've stopped me. I mean the thought…I just…when I thought I lost you today…" She cried as brushed the tears away shaking her head not wanting to relive those moments.

"Really?" He asked, stunned by the way she acting, the tears and the sentiments. I mean he figured she still hated him, or at least…wasn't fond of him.

"Real-How could you even ask that? Yes really! Tony I love you more than, Christ more than anything. I don't care that we don't get along, or we're so strained or whatever but I never, ever would want anything bad to happen to you. I mean…I mean you're my baby brother. You…" She stopped as the emotions overcame her and she just stared at Tony.

No words could describe how she truly felt about him, how much she honestly truly loved him.

Looking at her in that moment Tony could feel the depth of love she had for him and for once he didn't fight back on his tears, he let them fall freely.

"I love you Tony." She whispered pulling him into a hug.

Tony stiffened at the contact at first, but she held him tighter till her slowly reciprocated the hug.

And for the first time in 20 years they held each other closely letting their actions speak the words neither were capable of saying.

Closing her eyes, Stella telepathically reached out for Tony and opened a mental link, sharing her emotions and memories with him so that he could see how she really felt about him for all of those years.

"What the hell was that?!" Tony asked shocked once it was finished, as he pulled back to look at her.

"Uh…my powers." She explained with a slight chuckle at his reaction.

"What did you do?"

"I just, well I created a link between us so that you could feel and understand how I really felt."

"A Link? How...what does that even mean?"

"Umm, well...think of it as a…" She began trying to figure out how to explain it.

"Think of it like a Vulcan mind meld. I just shared a little bit of my brain with you momentarily." She explained as Tony shook his head in disbelief.

"And you can just…just do that?" He asked bewildered by it all as she nodded.

"I don't...ever. But in this moment, I just...I wanted you to know. I felt like it was important for you to understand that no matter what happens or had happened or will happen, I love you Tony, I will always love you." She clarified as Tony gave her a real smile and he finally understood the depths his big sister loved him.

"Thanks." He whispered as she nodded.

The intense mood had lifted and both of them reached for their drinks, needing a way to deal with all that had been said between them.

"Look Tony, I'm not gonna lie, despite the tiffs and little bits of arguing, it was fun working with you. You really know your stuff. I mean that suit is amazing."

"Well yea." He replied confidently as she rolled her eyes at his cockiness.

"Thanks." He added as she gave him a slight smile, taking another sip.

"I've followed your work, I blame Pepper mostly, whenever you published something she'd always put it on my desk and make sure I read it. The stuff you've done with Vita Rays and their connection to the Electromagnetism of storms is really, it's uh…it's ya know…"

"Don't hurt yourself Tony." She teased as he chuckled.

"It's great. Plus…the way you, shoot things from your mind and all that crazy mental stuff…pretty impressive." He added as she gave a nod of thanks chuckling at how he'd phrased it.

"I really am proud of you Anthony. You've turned into a pretty good guy. Though I'm sure I have Pepper to thank for that." Stella joked as Tony chuckled.

"You have no idea." He agreed as Stella smiled, before a comfortable silence fell between the two of them.

It was like an emotional wall had just been broken down, and since both were horrible in dealing with emotions, they weren't sure how to handle it.

They knew there would always be a little bit of a rivalry but something had shifted in their relationship, they now realized they _had_ a relationship, or were at least on their way to one.

"Stella, I, uh, I don't want another 15 years to go by between us. Ya know if the world is in mortal danger or something before then, maybe I could call you?" He mumbled over his glass, almost nervously, not looking over at her.

"Well I mean, it doesn't have to be mortal danger, even moderate is okay…or, or uh mild danger would be fine too." She added as he smiled.

"So mild danger then?"

"Yea, I'll umm, I'll leave my information with Pepper. I'd leave it with but you'd probably lose it." She teased remembering that even though he was a genius, he was pretty absent-minded…much like their dad had been.

"Not when it's important." He replied honestly as she gave him a genuine smile at his compliment.

"You know, you don't have to leave right away. If, if you don't want to. I mean I can fly you back."

"With the suit? I'd rather take my chances with commercial." She teased as he rolled his eyes.

"No. The private jet. Whenever you're ready to go. I mean, I uh…I'm sure Pepper will want to see you."

"Oh yea. It'd, it'd be nice to finally _officially_ meet Pepper."

"Right. Plus I think, a certain blonde super soldier doesn't want you to leave just yet." Tony added as a blush crept up on her cheeks with a slight smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She joked, her blush deepening as Tony smiled and finished off his drink before he put it down.

"Right, right. Me and him are gonna have a few words about that." Tony teased as Stella turned to look over at him.

"Now why would you go and do something like that?"

"Well it's my duty as a brother, I need to make sure my sister is protected, cared for, safe…"

"Have you met Steve? I'm pretty sure you just described him to a tee." She explained with a raised eyebrow as Tony shrugged.

"Right…well still…" He added as Stella smiled and put her glass down on the table once more.

"Thank you for not leaving me Tony." She expressed as she pulled him into another hug overcome with all the emotions from the days events.

"Thanks for wanting me back." He whispered wrapping his arms around her, and hugging her tightly once more.

"No more Vulcan mind melds though. Freaks me out." Tony added as Stella laughed hugging him tighter for a moment before letting him go.

"Okay. I'll do my best."

"That's all I ask." He added with a smile before taking their cups back to the bar.

Later that evening, Pepper arrived and the girls had been overjoyed to finally meet.

After letters and emails for many years they felt like old friends and Tony couldn't help but smile at how happy it made him seeing his sister so close with the girl he loved.

Bruce had eventually resurfaced to meet Pepper and him and Tony had then headed up stairs to the R&D department so Tony could show off all of his toys.

Pepper had given Stella some clothes and after a shower Stella went to sleep in one of Tony's guest rooms, passing out with in seconds of hitting the pillow.


	16. Asgaurdian Justice and New Adventures

The morning came early and far too fast when Stella was awoken to Tony's gentle shaking.

"Stell, get up. We need to go." He announced as she climbed out of bed quickly, not really sure what was going on but figuring it was important if Tony was waking her.

"What's wrong?"

"Get dressed. Natasha just called, Thor is taking Loki back to Asguard and wants us all there." He informed as Stella nodded and quickly moved to get dressed.

When she walked out to Tony's living room she was surprised at how much had already been accomplished in it.

New windows were up and the hole where Loki had been laying was gone.

"Did you sleep last night?" She asked Tony, who handed her a cup of coffee.

"A little. But Pepper had to fly out early, much to my unhappiness, for business so after a proper goodbye I got to fixing this place." He joked as she gratefully took the cup and gulped it down.

"Oh did you get your suit up and running?"

"Sort of." He mumbled with a shrug as they headed to the Elevator taking it to the garage level.

"Where's Bruce?"

"He left early, said he had some things to take care of and would meet us there." He expressed as she nodded.

"Where are we meeting?" She asked as her eyes widened when they walked into the garage.

Sports cars and muscle cars from every decade and every dealership it seemed lined the way.

"Holy Shit Tony? Why do you have so many cars?" She asked as he shrugged.

"I like new toys." He simply said as she shook her head, stopping when she spotted Howard's favorite car whenever he was in New York.

Howard of course had several cars but when he was in New York he always drove his vintage 1948 Jaguar XK 120.

"Oh my God. You still have Dad's New York car?" She asked shocked it was in such pristine condition still.

"Oh was that dad's? Hmm. Guess so." He mumbled trying to play it off as she shook her head and finished her coffee off.

"It's okay to be sentimental. I would've kept it too. It's a nice car." She murmured following him to a maroon convertible.

"Acura…Not Porsche or Lamborghini?" She asked looking at it as he grinned.

"A little presumptuous don't you think. We live in hard Economic times Stell."

"And?" She asked not buying his excuse for one minute.

"And I bought the company recently." He added quickly as she laughed and climbed into the car.

"Yea." She mumbled as Tony pulled out of the garage and sped towards Central Park.

When they arrived Tony took her to a specific part of the Park where Natasha, Clint, Bruce and Thor were waiting with a handcuffed and muzzled Loki.

"That's a good look for you." Tony told Loki who shot him an annoyed look as Steve showed up on his motorcycle.

Stella thought he looked delicious dressed in his "civilian" clothes and she couldn't help the shy smile she gave when he turned to look over at her.

"Allies…" Thor began as everyone moved to stand around him and Loki.

"Friends." Thor corrected looking over the group.

"I bid you farewell for now. But rest assured I will be back if needed. For in this moment Loki and I depart to Asguard where he will answer for his crimes." Thor spoke as Tony presented the briefcase he had been holding.

"_I told you not to underestimate us."_ Stella sent mentally to Loki who turned to look at her and narrow his eyes.

"_Don't think these tiny handcuffs can hold me Stella Stark. I'll be back and this time, Thor won't be the only one in trouble." _He sent to her as she smirked.

"We'll be ready." She spoke out loud as everyone turned to look at her, wondering what she was talking about.

"Wanting to make sure Loki heard me loud and clear." She stated never looking away from him as they all realized the two of them had being speaking telepathically.

"Here you go." Natasha said handing Thor a giant class cylinder with handles on either side.

Opening the Briefcase, Bruce used giant tongs to take the Tesseract out of Tony's briefcase and place it inside the glass cylinder.

Once it closed Thor grabbed hold of one side than motioned for Loki to grab the other side.

"Farewell my friends." Thor spoke once more with a nod before twisting the handle.

The Tesseract lit up brightly and Thor and Loki vanished into the sky with the Tesseract, leaving the rest standing at the bridge in the park.

None of them were sure what to say as they looked around at each other in shock and awe at all they had been through.

Steve looked down at Stella with a smile and she grinned, feeling like a schoolgirl again at the way the butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

Moving to the SHIELD car, Natasha pulled out a duffel bag and handed it to Bruce who nodded his thanks shaking her hand as Clint moved to the driver's seat of the car.

"Dr. Banner, Dr. Stark, SHIELD has arranged for your transports back to your previous locations." She informed them as Steve felt his happiness sink at the thought of Stella leaving already.

He knew it had only been a few days since he met her but he felt a closeness to her that he hadn't felt since waking up, and he wanted to explore that a little bit, see if maybe there was something there.

Well _he_ knew there was something there, but he wanted to see if she was willing to explore it with him.

"I think I'll stay in New York for a little while." She told Natasha as Steve's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yea…well Tony I didn't finish looking over your R and D department." Bruce added, not ready to completely disappear again, especially now that he had found some people who really accepted him, all of him.

He'd forgotten what that felt like.

"True. There is lot's to explore. Here…hop in." Tony spoke nodding to his car. "Uh…" Stella interrupted as Tony paused.

"Right, right…sister." He mumbled as she rolled her eyes.

"I can give you a lift." Steve interjected enthusiastically as Stella turned to look at him, and Tony raised an eyebrow at Steve.

"If you umm, don't mind Motorcycles I mean." He added as she walked towards him.

"I don't mind them one bit." She whispered honestly as Tony rolled his eyes.

"Right, Cap… brother talk time." Tony stated as Stella gave him a look.

"Tony…"

"No it's fine Stella." Steve agreed as Stella rolled her eyes and the boys stepped away.

"Have fun with that." Natasha laughed before reaching to shake Stella's hand. "Should be fun right?" Stella muttered as the girls paused.

"Doc, it was a privilege fighting along side you, and your umm…skills." Natasha added looking down at Stella's hands as Stella chuckled, but feeling self-conscious put them into her pockets.

"Likewise Agent Romanoff. After seeing your _skills_ first hand, definitely glad you're on our side." Stella added as Natasha laughed.

"Me too." She said with a nod before stepping into the car and Stella nodded a good bye to Clint.

"So…you and my sister huh?" Tony began turning to look at Steve as Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"To be honest Tony, I don't really know. I mean I like her if that's what you're asking." Steve confirmed as Tony eyed him.

"Well that's good." He announced after a few moments of silence as Steve nodded, raising an eyebrow at Tony, not sure what else to say.

"Yea, I don't really have anything to say I just like pissing Stella off." Tony added as Steve rolled his eyes but couldn't help the chuckle that escaped.

"Look, I know she can handle herself especially with her special new abilities. I'm more worried about you big guy. You know she can read minds right?" Tony told Steve, whose eyebrows shot up in shock.

"No, I uh, I didn't know that."

"Well she can, but she says she doesn't, either way, keep that in mind." Tony revealed as Steve nodded.

"Anything else?" He asked as Tony sighed, looking over at Stella, who was nervously chewing on her fingernail at the exchange between the two.

"Just remember that she's my big sister so…just…ya know…" Tony mumbled as Steve nodded understandingly.

"You don't have to worry Stark. I promise I'll treat her right." Steve expressed sincerely looking Tony in the eyes so he knew how serious he was.

"With you, I know that's true." Tony imparted before sticking his hand out to shake Steve's.

Looking down at it Steve smiled and shook Tony's hand firmly, solidifying a newfound respect for each other.

Walking over to Bruce and Stella, Tony looked at Stella's expectant face, and he couldn't help but resist pulling her chain a little bit.

"So, okay, well, you ride with the Cap and I'll take the Doc here to check out the rest of Stark Tower?" Tony asked as Stella looked at him questionably, wondering what the hell they had just said.

"Okay? Okay, great." Tony answered as Stella frowned.

"That's it? You're not gonna tell me what you just said?" She asked as he grinned, loving to see her feathers slightly ruffled.

"Of course not. I'm sure I'll be seeing you later tonight Stell. Don't keep her out too late Cap?" Tony teased as Steve cracked a smile and Stella rolled her eyes before chuckling at Tony.

"It's not her you have to worry about remember?" Steve joked, referring to their conversation moments ago.

Tony gave a good-natured chuckle at Steve's joke glad to know the Boy Scout had a sense of humor.

"I'm not sure I like you two being friends, I mean it's been what ten minutes and you already have inside jokes." Stella presumed as Bruce snickered and Tony and Steve shared a look of amusement.

"Well with that, you two enjoy your time and me and Bruce are going to go do some science." Tony added turning to Bruce who shook his head playfully at Tony's way of putting things.

"Shall we doc?" Tony asked as Bruce nodded.

"We shall." He agreed as the two of them headed towards Tony's car with a wave to the other two, leaving Steve and Stella standing there alone.

Realizing how very alone they were for the first time since they met Steve turned to look down at Stella, not really sure what to say or how to proceed with all of this.

"Uh…so…" He began, clearing his throat nervously as Stella offered a small smile.

"So…" She repeated letting out a slight chuckle, feeling a little nervous herself realizing just how long she'd been out of the game.

"Why do I feel so nervous right now?" She asked turning to look up at with him a sheepish smile.

"If it makes you feel any better. I uh, I'm feeling a little nervous myself. Which is kind of silly given that we uh, well we saved the world together." He added as she nodded her agreement.

"True. And I kissed you."

"And you kissed me." He echoed with a genuine smile at the thought of that kiss.

"It was a good kiss…it was uh…it was a _good_ kiss." He reiterated thinking of that kiss as she laughed, blushing slightly but extremely flattered by his compliment.

"Well ya know, 'end of the world-this may be the last time I see you kisses' have to be really good. Otherwise, I mean, what would be the point?" She teased, as the familiarity she had felt with Steve in the lab seemed to settle around her and her nerves eased away.

"There would be no point." He added, his own nerves beginning to settle as he took in her relaxed disposition and easy going attitude.

"Exactly. But I think it's only fair to warn you Steve that not all my kisses are like that. Like I said, that was a special kiss. My regular kisses, they aren't as…well as special." She said with a shrug, trying to downplay his reaction to it not wanting him to get any crazy notions about her.

"Stella, there is not one thing about you that isn't special." He stated taking her hand in his and placing a small kiss on the top of it as her eyes widened.

"You really are a helluva a guy." She gasped out, slightly breathless from how romantic that moment had been.

Laughing lightly at her reaction, Steve smiled as he lowered her hand but held it in his, not ready to let go just yet.

"Would you like to join me for a late breakfast?" He asked finding a confidence he hadn't always possessed, but was starting to grow thanks to Stella's compliments of him.

"Very much so." She agreed with a nod as he smiled his approval and led them over to his motorcycle. Offering her a helmet he kept on his bike, she clipped it before climbing onto the back.

"Hold on." He whispered to her as she wrapped her arms around his waist, eyes widening slightly when she felt just how muscular he really was.

"Wow." She whispered as Steve's breath hitched when he felt her body press against his. She felt so warm and he swore he could smell the sweet fragrance of citrus wafting off her making his mouth water slightly, he never wanted her to let go.

"Where should we go?" He asked, clearing his throat when his voice cracked slightly.

"Anywhere is fine." She answered before he heard a faint, "As long as it's far.," mumbled from her.

"I know just the place." He stated starting his bike before pulling out of the park and the two of them headed off on a new adventure.

**AN: Well everyone, thanks so much for reading! I hope you all liked it and the reviews were so wonderful! FYI I am planning a sequel if you are interested, but I am still in the "planning" stages so it might be a little while. But there is one in the works. Thank you again for reading, and I look forward to final thoughts! You guys are all wonderful THANKS SO MUCH!**


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